Objects for intermediate learners
Simply put, an object is a noun or pronoun representing the person or thing that is affected by the action of the verb. Here, we'll explain more.
What Are Objects?
In English, objects are things or people that the action is done to them, which is the opposite of the subject that was the doer of the action in the sentence. Let us learn more about them.
Kinds of Objects
In English, we have three main kinds of objects that are listed below:
- Simple Objects
- Compound Objects
- Complete Objects
Simple Objects
An object is a simple word that is sometimes used with a definite or an indefinite article.
- It can be a personal pronoun:
She talked to
I linked
- It can be a proper noun:
I don't care about
We met
Object Personal Pronouns
As it was mentioned before, personal pronouns can be used as both subjects and objects in sentences. Below is a table of object personal pronouns:
Compound Objects
The second kind of object is called 'compound objects'. They consist of two or more objects and can be a mixture of nouns or pronouns. Below are examples:
They told
She wrote to
How Do They Function?
When using sentences, we have three major kinds of objects in the English language which are:
Direct Objects
Direct objects are those that the action verb directly affects. Let us take a look at the examples below:
She had
David and Jenny are writing
Tip!
Indirect Objects
An indirect object is one that is affected by the direct object in the sentence. Look at the examples below:
I told
She gave
Warning!
An indirect object must always come with a direct object. The underlined words are the direct objects.
Object of a Preposition
These objects are nouns or pronouns that come after a preposition most of the time (not always). Let us look at the examples below:
She lives in
They wrote a letter to
Why Can't We Find Objects in Some Sentences?
In English, not all verbs take objects. There are
Transitive Verbs
Transitive verbs are
She talked to
As you can see, if you remove the highlighted part, the sentence will be incomplete.
We discussed
Intransitive Verbs
Intransitive verbs do not need an object.
She
Here in this example, the sentence is complete and there is no need for an object.
They
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