A direct object is the part of a sentence that receives the action of the verb. It answers the question of who or what. For example, in the sentence “Alice caught the baseball”, the direct object is “baseball” because it is what Alice caught. Here are more examples:
- I bought a nice sweater. (a nice sweater)
- What did you buy? (What)
- I saw Peter and Sarah. (Peter and Sarah)
- Who did you see? (Who)
An indirect object is the part of a sentence that shows to whom or for whom the action of the verb is done. It answers the question of to whom or for whom. For example, in the sentence “Max pitched Alice the baseball”, the indirect object is “Alice” because she is the one who received the baseball from Max. Here are more examples:
- I sent my friends a picture of the house. (my friends)
- Who did you send a picture to? (Who, to)
- I cooked my wife breakfast. (my wife)
- Who did you cook breakfast for? (Who, for)
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