Search results for 'tag:Direct objects tag:Prepositions' matching tags 'Direct objects' and 'Prepositions'

Re: the reason

Tanit — Fri, 29 Aug 2008 13:58:50 GMT

On reflection, I think I must amend one thing I wrote earlier. (General statements are always dangerous when speaking about English...sorry )

Tanit
...while some need to be followed by an indirect object (i.e. one preceded by a preposition) ...

Sometimes indirect objects are not preceded by a preposition. This happens, for instance, with verbs like send/give/write:
        John gave me the book.
        John sent me a parcel.
        John wrote her a letter.
It's easy, though, to distinguish the objects if we rewrite these sentences as:
        John gave the book to me.
        John sent a parcel to me.
        John wrote a letter to her.

Re: the reason

Tanit — Fri, 29 Aug 2008 07:31:15 GMT

Buddhist-Accountant
Could you mention other intransitive verb ??

Hi,

I can mention a couple of them.

To be: I was here at five. - I am tired. - To be or not to be?
To exist: Do you believe UFOs exist?
To appear: He appeared suddenly.
To die: My grannie died at the age of 92. - John has died.
To rain: It's raining heavily. - It's going to rain.
To lie: She's always lying.
To work: Tom works in a farm.
To talk: They have been talking for two hours.
To go: I usually go to the beach on Sundays.

As you can see, some are "complete" (i.e. they don't require any object), while some need to be followed by an indirect object (i.e. one preceded by a preposition) or by an adjective.
Also, some verbs can be either transitive or intransitive, depending on the meaning and on the context.

To run: Ann is running in the park (intransitive) - Ann ran the marathon in 1989 (transitive) - Ann runs a business in London (transitive)

The best thing you can do is to look verbs up in a dictionary like this one. For each verb, you will find (T) and/or (I), which stand for "transitive" and "intransitive" respectively. I am pretty sure you also can find many useful posts about this topic in the forums (especially in the linguistics section).

Re: the reason

Tanit — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 19:46:57 GMT

Buddhist-Accountant
the answer is B " Happened"

But,I wonder why that is the answer.I think it should be use "was happened" because it is passive..

Hi,

Why do you think it should be passive? Only transitive verbs (i.e. those that need to be followed by direct objects, without any preposition) have passive forms, and "happen" is intransitive.

To put it simply (and only as a rough guideline):
    Write => transitive verb:
        Active: My friend John wrote a letter.
        Passive: A letter was written by John.
    Laugh => intransitive verb:
        Active: Yesterday, I laughed at my friend's joke.
        No passive (we cannot say "~~My friend's joke was laughed~~")

Happen => intransitive verb:
        Active: Yesterday, something weird happened to me.
        No passive (we cannot say "~~I was happened something weird~~")

Does this help?

Basic ESL Grammar

angel_tristan0409 — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 09:58:19 GMT

A word is a âpart of speechâ only when it is used in a sentence. The function the word serves in a sentence is what makes it whatever part of speech it is.

For example, the word ârunâ can be used as more than one part of speech:â¨
Sammy hit a home run. (run is a noun, direct object of hit)â¨
You mustnât run near the swimming pool. (run is a verb, part of the verb phrase must (not) run)

Here is a simple overview of the English parts of speech and what they do. Each part of speech is linked to an DWT article that tells more about it.

NOUN - Nouns are naming words. We canât talk about anything until we have given it a name.

PRONOUN - A pronoun is a word that stands for a noun.

VERBS - The verb is the motor that runs the sentence. A verb enables us to say something about a noun.

ADJECTIVE - An adjective is a word that describes a noun.

ADVERB - An adverb adds meaning to a verb, an adjective, or another adverb.

PREPOSITION - a preposition is a word that comes in front of a noun or a pronoun and shows a connection be

Re: have given to us

Abil — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 15:46:08 GMT

Thanks Clive. One more question. Do you think the same preposition (to) is outright wrong becauseÂ weÂ know '"give" is an intransitive verb and takes a direct object?

Re: sentence analysis

Anonymous — Sun, 17 Aug 2008 18:44:18 GMT

I disagree.
My and his are possesive adjectives. They modify nouns (friend and girlfriend) A possesive pronoun can replace a noun. My cannot replace any nouns.
Additonally, "with my best friend and his rather unusual girlfriend" is a prepositional phrase led by the preposition with.
It is an adverbial prepositional phrase.
A subjective complement follows a linking verb.
An objective complement "complements" a direct object.
You have no DO in this sentence. You only have objects of the prepostion with: friend , girlfriend

Re: Appositive, direct object, indirect, predicate nominative, object of prepos

Anonymous — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 12:45:52 GMT

"Scurvy, a vitamin C deficiency, makes people weak and sore."

Scurvy is the subject, because it is the thing which "makes people weak and sore."
People is the direct object, because it is what scurvy is affecting, direct objects usually follow verbs.
Weak and sore are objective complements, because they modify the direct object, people.

"Scurvy was the leading cause of death among sailors in the early eighteen century."

Cause is the predicate nominative, because it stands for the subject, scurvy.
Sailors is the object of a preposition, because it follows the preposition among, and acts as the subject of the prepositional phrase.

"In 1753, James Lind, a Scottish naval surgeon, showed that citrus could cure scurvy."

Surgeon is an appositive for James Lind, because it describes him further, but is not essential to the sentence.

"When the British navy gave sailors fresh citrus juice, scurvy disappeared from their ships."

Navy is the subject, because it is the thing which gave.
Sailors is an indirect object, because they are the people to whom the juice was given.
Juice is the direct object, because it is the thing which was given.

"Today, scurvy is rare; it is usually seen only in very old or very young patients whose diets are deficient in vitamin C."

Vitamin C is an object of a preposition because it is the subject of the prepositional phrase, "in vitamin C."

When trying to diagram a sentence I think it becomes easier when you take out the unnecessary words. For example change "scurvy was the leading cause of death among sailors in the early eighteen century," to "scurvy was the cause of death among sailors in century." The latter is less senseful, but makes it easier to diagram the sentence's nouns. Of course that method wouldn't work as well when you're asked to diagram words other than nouns.
I hope this made some sense, and helped!
-Nathan

Re: Appositive, direct object, indirect, predicate nominative, object of prepos

Anonymous — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 11:09:28 GMT

Re: direct object indirect object object of a preposition help me! plz

Anonymous — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 06:13:23 GMT

Question when do I use to or from with direct object and indirect object

ex.
I passed the salt to her
I passed the salt for her.
In these cases both prepositions are correct . I need to find the rule of when to use each one. I am a teacher and I cant explain it to my student. Please help

Re: Direct object and clauses

Avangi — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 03:31:48 GMT

Cute572
We both thought that this novel was one of the finest books we have ever read.
I read that direct object recives the action. Here book get the action "read" which make its a direct object. But preposition Of make me confuse. Whether its a object of preposition or not. Secondly is ONE is direct object here ?

I think of direct and indirect objects in connection with transitive verbs (action verbs - doing something to somebody). Your example uses a "verb of being," "to be" (something is something). The "that" clause has no direct or indirect object.
Novel was one. The subject of the clause is "Novel," and the verb is "was." There's no action, so there's no object. In the 40's we used to call "one" the "predicate nominative," but now I guess they call it the "verb compliment."

"Books" is object of the preposition, as you suspect, not object of the verb (where we would use direct/indirect). The prepositional phrase modifies "one."

"We have ever read" is a clause, modifying "books." I can understand why you think "books" might be object of the verb "read," and I'm not sure how to explain why it's not.

To back way up, if you're looking for a true action verb that functions as a true action verb, you'll find it in the main clause, We thought. It's intransitive, so it has a direct object but no indirect object. The direct object is the "that" clause. (What did we both think??)

Huevos
It gives me pleasure to introduce you to Paul. It = subject; "to introduce you to Paul" = direct object; (to) me = indirect object.

Cute572
Could you please explain why "to introduce you to Paul" is direct object and not object of preposition ? As its starts with preposition

"To" is not a preposition here. It's part of the infinitive form of the verb, "to introduce." "To introduce you to Paul" is an infinitive phrase acting as a noun, not a prepositional phrase.

Best wishes, - A.