Compliments| Direct Objects and Indirect Objects

The most basic order of a sentence in the English language is

Subject + Predicate

And if we break it down further, then the basic order of a sentence is
Subject + Verb + Object.

And those objects are called compliments because these are the words that complete the meaning of a verb.

There are two types of compliments in the English language.

• Direct Object
• Indirect Object

Direct Objects

Direct Objects are super easy to spot because their position is very regular. These objects always follow transitive action verbs and answer the questions: what or whom. Their general formula is
Subject + Verb +What/Whom.
Subject + Verb + Direct Object.

For example,

Rayyan and Ali play tennis in the court.

Rayyan and Ali = Subjects; play = verb, which is our action verb which needs another word to receive the action in order to complete the meaning of the sentence, called transitive verb.

Now we can ask our "Direct Objects" questions.

Rayyan and Ali played what? Tennis = Direct object.

Let's look at another example of Direct Object.

Adriana loves singing more than anything else.

Again Adriana = Subject; loves = verb; Adriana loves what? Direct Object = singing.
Example:

She is wearing her beautiful clothes.

She = Subject; wearing = verb. What is she wearing? Beautiful clothes = Direct Object.
Example:

He hates dogs.

He = subject; hates = verb; He hates whom? Dogs = Direct object.

Indirect Objects

Indirect objects are very easy to spot as they are found after the transitive verb and before the direct object.

Transitive Verb ------ Indirect Object ------ Direct Objects

Indirect objects answer the questions; To whom, for whom, and to what.

Let's look at the following examples.

She gave my friend a gift.

The object has been given is a gift and it was given to MY FRIEND.

She = Subject; gave = verb; what did she give to my friend? A gift = Direct Object; 
She gave a gift to whom? Friend = Indirect Object.

This sentence can also be written as

She gave a gift to my friend.

There is no difference in meaning between the two sentences but the last one does not contain an Indirect Object. Do you know why? To understand, look at the "POSITION" of the word friend; is it where it needs to be in order to be considered an Indirect Object?

No, it is not!

In fact, it is just a part of a prepositional phrase and cannot be an indirect object.