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

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: Is it a subject relative?

miriam — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 05:02:36 GMT

Hello.

Relative clauses can only be (from a syntactic point of view) either post-modifiers of nouns/pronouns, or sentence modifiers. They are never objects; they don't modify verbs.

What can be subjects or objects, WITHIN the relative clauses themselves, are the relative pronouns used (who, that, which, etc.).

You provided the following examples: "The girl laughed at the boy who is bigger than her" and "The boy hit the girl who slept".

Both sentences could use some changes, but I will concentrate on what you're asking only.

In the first sentence, "who is bigger than her" is a restrictive relative clause acting as post-modifier of the noun "boy". The relative pronoun "who" is the subject of the relative clause.

Your second sentence is another example of the relative pronoun as subject of the relative clause. The clause is "who slept", with "who" as its subject.

Here are a couple of examples of relative clauses in which the relative pronoun acts as object:

1. "Where is the flower-pot (that I gave you last month)?" [that = direct object] (the subject of the clause is "I")

2. "The books (that are on the table) are Paul's." [that = subject (the books)]

3. "You don't know the man (to whom my sister sold her car)." [to whom = indirect object] (the subject of the clause is "my sister")

There are also cases in which the relative pronoun is preceded by a preposition but you're not in the presence of an indirect object. In such cases, what you'll have is an adjunct (or adverbial), as in the following sentence:

4. "Chemistry is a subject which I've always had problems with." [here, "with which" is neither subject nor object, but an adjunct/adverbial]

You can remove "which" (though not the preposition) from sentence #4, and the sentence will still make sense: "Chemistry is a subject I've always had problems with".

One good way of telling whether the relative pronoun is acting as object (direct or indirect) or subject in the relative clause is trying to remove the pronoun in question from the clause. If you do, and the sentence still makes sense, that will most probably mean that the relative pronoun is the object of the clause (watch out for adjuncts, though). If you can't remove the pronoun, that will mean it's the subject (of the relative clause). Have a look at my examples and give this a try. You won't have a correct sentence in #2 if you remove the relative proboun, but you can certainly remove it in the other three examples. You'll have to make a minor change in sentence #3, though.

See if you can do it and what you come up with.

I hope this helps.

Miriam.

need some help with some english exercises.

market-huxley — Sat, 23 Feb 2008 16:13:04 GMT

I'm taking a correspondence course. These are some of the exercises that I need to submit. So please I need help from grammar exerperts thnaks.

Exercise 1: Identify each of the â __ â words in the sentences as one of the following parts of the sentence:

1.Direct object

2.Indirect object

3.Predicate noun

4.Predicate adjective

A. I sent âherâ an âemailâ yesterday to comfirm the date of the meeting.

email=direct object. her=indirect object.

B. Elton John is a pop âicon.â

icon=predicate noun. But I'm unsure? Need help.

C. She seemed âhonestâ , but I was deceived

honest=predicate adjective.. the word itself is a adjective..ex:the honest doctor.

D. Give âmeâ a break!

me=indirect object. Ex: give what? A break, to whom ... to âmeâ

is this one right?

Exercise 2: copy each sentence; identify the simple subject and the simple predicate.

a. It is a shame! it=subject is=verb

b.Will you go to a movie with me? you=subject go=verb

c. Janet has been singing in the choir for years. Janet=subject .. the predicate I'm having trouble with... Is it "has been singing" or "singing" becuase "has been" are helping verbs. What is the "simple" predicate?

d. Through the dense bushes and into the open fields ran the white-tailed deer.

deer= subject. ran=verb

e. To win the gold medal is the goal of many athletes.

To win=subject is=verb (is this one correct?)

How are my answers looking?

Re: Whomever

CalifJim — Wed, 23 Jan 2008 03:51:33 GMT

It's not the combination with whomever that determines the choice whoever/whomever.
It's the combination whoever the next president will be that determines the choice.

The linking verb be (as in will be) does not take a direct object (whom); it takes a subject complement (who). So the correct choice is whoever.

He says he wants to get along with whoever the next president of the US will be.

You need to be careful. If whoever/whomever occurs after a preposition, it is not always going to be whomever, because the preposition is irrelevant for making the choice.

CJ

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

ClarkePeters — Fri, 04 Jan 2008 17:12:39 GMT

This post is a little dated but since I've been working with my students on this very topic I thought I'd post.

First, you can't understand what the "object of the preposition" is if you don't first know how to identify prepositions. So you need to find a list (google "list prepositions English" or "frequency list prepositions English") and you should get plenty of lists. Depending on which list you go by, there are from 80 to 130 or so prepositions. Most are not used too often, so I'd get a frequency list and try to learn the first 50 or so.   That may sound like a lot of words, but compared to the number of words in Webster's 500,000 word dictionary, that's really very few words--and they are SO IMPORTANT to understanding sentence structure. If you don't want to memorize, no problem, just keep a list with you at all times.

When you come across a word from the list, check to see if it has an object by asking "what" after the preposition.
              John called about the party.
              about what? the party,
              so "party" or "the party" if you include the article, is the object of the preposition.

Be careful, prepositions sometimes act as adverbs.
John got up and went to the kitchen.
up what? ---ummmm, no answer, there is NO object, so "up" is an adverb to "got"

as for DO, ask "what" after the verb.

John made a cake.
John made what? a cake
DO is cake

as for IO, ask "to whom/what?" or "for whom/what?" after the DO
John made Mary a cake.
John made what? a cake
DO is cake
a cake for whom? for Mary
IO is Mary.

The following sentences are exactly the same in meaning! (except maybe in emphasis)

John made Mary a cake.         common usage
John made for Mary a cake.   NOT common usage, but technically
                                                  correct, sometimes used for emphasis
John made a cake for Mary.    common usage

same with "to"
John gave Mary a cake.
John gave to Mary a cake.   NOT common usage
John gave a cake to Mary.

some grammarians will say that an IO can ONLY be between the verb and DO.
Other linguists say functionally there is no difference, so it is OK to say that "to Mary" or "for Mary" is the IO. However, others will argue that they are adverbials answering the question where (to) or why (for) about the verb (made why? for Mary    gave where? to Mary).
How one describes it is not important, as they all function the same.

Can a prepositional phrase function as a noun?

Anonymous — Thu, 22 Nov 2007 15:17:05 GMT

Hi folks,

I would like to ask the following question: is it possible for a prepositional phrase to function as a noun in a sentence? I am thinking of the following sentence:   I told her about the meeting.

My interpretation:
    Subject:                 I
    Verb:                    told
    Direct Object:       about the meeting       (I told what? About the meeting. Prep: about, OOP: meeting)
    Indirect Object:   her                               (To whom did I tell? Her.)

An analogous sentence:   I told her the facts.
    Subject:                 I
    Verb:                    told
    Direct Object:       the facts    (I told what? The facts.)
    Indirect Object:   her            (To whom did I tell? Her.)

It seems pretty clear to me. But I found the following in the The Writer's Digest - Grammar Desk Reference:
"However, a prepositional phrase can't function as a noun."

Any thoughts?

Thanks in advance for any help that you might be able to provide.

Re: Direct object?

Clive — Mon, 29 Oct 2007 00:46:35 GMT

Hi,

Can you tell me how I can know if this is a direct object.

The man whom he punches is suing. I would expect this to be 'punched', to make sense. First the punching, then the suing.

Consider which word in the sentence 'receives the action' of the verb.

'is suing' We are not told who is being sued.

punched - The underlying idea of the subordinate clause is 'he punched a man'. The pronoun in 'whom he punched' refers to 'the man'. Thus, 'whom' is the object, although you might wish to say the real object is 'the man'.

Best wishes, Clive

Direct object?

Believer — Mon, 29 Oct 2007 00:29:19 GMT

Can you tell me how I can know if this is a direct object.

The man whom he punches is suing.

Re: married/got married

Goodman — Wed, 19 Sep 2007 19:01:14 GMT

Bokeh wrote:
Goodman wrote:

We can not just say "Susan married" because the direct object to whom Susan married is missing in the sentence.

"To marry" does not need a direct object.

Hi Bokeh,

So I take it that you are saying "Susan married" is acceptpable; aren't you? To me, " Susan married" make little sense. I can think of the a bunch of scenario in reference to the verb "marry" which are correct in my mind:

* She is getting married next month.

* Sue got married two months ago.

* She was married to a rich guy but later divorced him because he cheated on her.

* She married a movie producer for her dream to stardom.

* John married Susan last week after 9 years of dating.

"John married ?" makes no sense to me!

That's one man's opinion.