"We explored the pond and searched for sunken treasure." How come the direct object isn't "sunken treasure"

Question

Full sentence: "As children we explored the pond and searched for sunken treasure."
The direct object is "the pond." How come the direct object is not also "sunken treasure?"

Answer 1

The pond is the thing receiving the action. It's what's being explored and searched. The treasure isn't receiving anything. It's inside a prepositional phrase.

Answer 2

There is no direct object after searched in this sentence, just a prepositional phrase. If you said 'We explored the pond and searched it for sunken treasure', then 'pond' and 'it' would be the direct objects. But there is no stand-alone noun or pronoun after searched. This is fairly common in English, to not have a direct object after a verb.

'For' is NOT part of the verb, as someone claimed. You could say "We searched the pond for sunken treasure" and you can clearly see that 'for' is not part of the verb, as there is a direct object in between the verb and the prepositional phrase.

Answer 3

it truly is because of the fact of 'the'. Had the sentence suggested, "As little ones we explored the pond and hunted for THE sunken treasure," then sunken treasure could additionally be an instantaneous merchandise.

Answer 4

Because a direct object is the recipient of the action "explored"

Sunken treasure is the object of the preposition "for"

Answer 5

Yes it is. It is the direct object of "searched for".

The sentence has two direct objects, one for each verb.

Do not heed the words of Laura who claims she is an editor, I teach English and I inviter her to my class for a refresher course.

Answer 6

because without the pond, there would be no sunken treasure. ;)


LOL jk jk I have no idea.

Answer 7

Because it is the object of the preposition "for."