Lesson 4: Non-Verbal Modifiers
The Indirect Object
Indirect Object the person or thing that the action of a verb is performed for or directed to —Merriam-Webster
Paul gave Jenny the coffee.
In the above sentence, our subject is “Paul,” our verb is “gave,” and then we have two nouns remaining: “Jenny” and “coffee.” Which is the DO? Which noun is receiving the action of “gave”? The coffee is being given and so it is receiving the direct action of gave, and Jenny is receiving the action secondarily. Rephrasing it as a prepositional phrase helps to clarify this: Paul did not give Jenny to the coffee, rather he gave the coffee to Jenny. “Coffee” is the DO. What is “Jenny”? Though we can rephrase this sentence with a preposition in order to understand it better, there is no actual preposition in the sentence. “Jenny” is an indirect object (IO).
The indirect object is a particular and special case. As the definition states, it is “the person or thing that the action of a verb is performed for or directed to,” and it is always and only placed after the verb and before the direct object.
A Murky Case
Above, we changed an indirect object into a prepositional phrase in order to help us figure out which noun was the direct object, and which the indirect object. It might have occurred to you as we did this that the indirect object is…well…functionally a prepositional phrase simply missing the preposition. And you are correct. Indirect objects are easily confused with prepositional phrases because they are so similar. The difference in English between the two is rather murky. Look for two signs in order to tell the difference:
- The IO is always placed after the verb and before the DO.
- The IO will never have an explicit preposition.
If it’s not between the verb and DO, it is a prepositional phrase, not the IO. If there is a preposition present, it is a prepositional phrase, not an IO. In the sentences below, you will see how flexible the prepositional phrase is, and how strict the indirect object is.
The last two examples are valid grammatically, even though we wouldn’t normally speak in these ways. Notice in the last example that, although the word “Jenny” is between the verb and direct object, there is an explicit preposition “to” and therefore we have a prepositional phrase, and not an indirect object.