Direct and indirect objects

Four easy steps to find the direct and indirect objects in a sentence.

1 Find the subject of the sentence. Do this by asking yourself "who" is performing the action or "what" the sentence is about. Jimmy baked Rhonda a pizza. Who baked the pizza? Jimmy.

2 Determine if the sentence contains an action, linking or state of being verb.
Action verbs have the subject doing something (run, jump, skip).
Linking verbs "link" the subject to the rest of the sentence (am, is, are).
State of being verbs show a condition (seem, remain, feel).
In our example sentence we have an action verb (baked).

3 Find the direct object by asking yourself "whom" or "what" is receiving the action. What did Jimmy bake? A pizza. Congrats! You've found the direct object. Now let's locate indirect object.

4 Find the word between the action verb and the direct object that answers one of four questions: "to/for whom" or "to/for what." For whom did Jimmy bake a pizza? For Rhonda. It's as simple as that.

There are some more tips that you need to know about direct/indirect objects:

1. If the indirect object comes before the direct object, there is no preposition.
They gave Harold a new car.

2. If the indirect object comes after the direct object, a preposition must be used.
They gave a new car to Harold.

3. If the direct object is a pronoun (it, this ... ), it comes before the indirect object, which is introduced by a preposition.

I bought it for my sister.
Can you send it to him? (Not: I bought my sister it.) Can you send him it?)

4. If the verbs read and write are only followed by the indirect object, a preposition must be used.
Please, read to me. (Not: Please, read me).
But: Read me the letter. Read the letter to me. Because there are two objects in these sentences.
I'll write to you soon.
But: I'll write you a letter. I'll write a letter to you. (two objects)

5. We can use the verbs promise, show, and tell with the indirect object only, but without a preposition.
I can't promise you. (Or: I can't promise it to you.)
Show him. (Or: Show it to him.)
Can you tell me?