Ditransitive Verbs for intermediate learners

ditransitive verbs transitivity

Ditransitive verbs are transitive verbs that take two objects. A direct object and an indirect object. Follow the article to read more about them.

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What Are Ditransitive Verbs?

The verbs that take only a direct object are called monotransitive (or simply transitive) verbs. The verbs that take an indirect object and a direct object are called ditransitive verbs.

Direct and Indirect Objects

A transitive verb takes a direct object; that is, the noun that receives the action. It can also have an indirect object that comes before the direct object. The indirect object tells 'to' or 'for' whom the action is done.

She gave me (indirect object) a watch (direct object) for my birthday. = She gave a watch to me.

Can I buy you (indirect object) a drink (direct object)? = Can I buy a drink for you?

Examples of Common Ditransitive Verbs

Here is the list of common transitive verbs in English:

Give
Send
Bake
Read
Pass
Tell
Show
Buy
Lend
Make

While some of these verbs only make sense with two objects, certain ditransitive verbs can also act as monotransitive verbs.

I baked a cake.

I baked him a cake.

Passive Voice

We can use ditransitive verbs in the passive voice. They are the only type of verbs that can have an object in passive voice.

A cake was baked for him.

A letter was mailed to him.

Auxiliary Verbs

Auxiliary verbs help the main verb to express tense or voice or help make questions and negative sentences. That's why they're also called 'helping verbs'.

Phrasal Verbs

Phrasal verbs are used very commonly in English, even more so in informal situations. Phrasal verbs consist of a verb and a preposition or a particle.

Transitive and Intransitive Verbs

'She smiled beautifully'. 'She started a rumor'. One of these sentences has an intransitive verb and one has a transitive one. Want to know the difference?

Ergative Verbs

Ergative verbs are a type of verbs that can be both transitive and intransitive. In this lesson, we will learn more about this type of verbs.

Complex Transitive Verbs

There are five basic types of verbs: intransitive, linking, mono-transitive, di-transitive and complex-transitive verbs. In this lesson, we'll discuss the last.

Linking Verbs

Linking verbs are connectors of the language. Their only job is to link a subject with a subject complement. Want to know how?

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