objects

Sunday, July 7, 2013

It is very easy to decide whether the word following the verb is an object or not. We have to ask any one of the three questions, ‘what’/ ‘which’/ ‘whom’.

E.g.

He ate an apple. ( What did he eat?-an apple)

I prefer tea. ( Which do you prefer?-tea)

She met her friend (Whom did she meet?-her friend)

Some verbs take two objects.

E.g.

1. I gave her a card.

2. He offered him a seat.

In sentence 1, we have answers for ‘What did I give?- ( a card) and whom did I give? ( her)

In the same way, in sentence 2, we have two objects, ‘a seat’ and ‘him’.

That which answers the question ‘what’ is known as the direct object, and that which answers the question ‘whom’ is known as the indirect object. If there is only one object, it is just called ‘object’.

Though Indians use expressions such as ‘I gave a card to him’ because of the influence of our mother tongue, according to the sentence pattern in English, the indirect object precedes the direct object as in sentences 1 & 2.

In Tamil, the name for the object is ‘செயப்படுபொருள்‘ and in Hindi, it is ‘कर्म’. is ‘कर्म’. 

Notice the appropriateness of the names in Tamil and Hindi.

* Why is a transitive verb called so?