What is the difference between a direct object and an indirect object?
Objects: Direct vs. Indirect
What is an Object?
An object is a word in a sentence placed after a verb to give the verb additional meaning. Objects are always nouns or pronouns and can be further classified as direct or indirect.
Direct Object
An easy way to determine the object is to set apart the verb from the rest of the sentence and ask the question for whom or what?
- Example: The girl kicked the soccer ball across the field.
To identify the direct object, one must ask who or what did the girl kick? In this example, the direct object is "the soccer ball," because it identifies what the girl kicked.
Indirect Object
Some sentences also contain indirect objects. An indirect object is the receiver of the direct object. They are similar to direct objects, because they are always nouns or pronouns. The difference between the two is the question that the object answers. An indirect object answers the question for whom, for what, to whom, or to what?
- Example: Johnny threw his dog a tennis ball.
This example answers to whom Johnny threw the tennis ball (the direct object). If a sentence has an indirect object, it must also have a direct object.
It is important to remember that not all sentences will have direct or indirect objects.
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