Monday, the 31st of January

Theme: Subject, Predicate, Object.

What is a predicate?

In traditional grammar, a sentence consists of two parts:

§  a subject

§  and a predicate which states something about the subject

Consider the following sentence:

§  Bill likes soccer.

What is an object?

An object in grammar is a part of a sentence, and often part of the predicate. It refers to someone or something involved in the subject's "performance" of the verb. It is what the verb is being done to. As an example, the following sentence is given:

Subject	Verb	Object
Leila	wrote	the poem

§  "Leila" is the subject, the doer or performer,

§  "wrote" is a verb that refers to the action,

§  "the poem" is the object involved in the action.

 

Direct object

A direct object answers the question "what?" or "who?"

Examples:

§  David repaired his car → his car is the direct object of the verb repaired. ( What did David repair?)

§  He invited Mary to the party → Mary is the direct object of the verb invited. (Who did he invite?)

Indirect Object

An indirect object answers the question "to whom?", "for whom?"

An indirect object is the recipient of the direct object, or an otherwise affected participant in the event. There must be a direct object for an indirect object to be placed in a sentence. In other words an indirect object cannot exist without a direct object.

Examples:

§  They sent him a postcard - him is the indirect object of the verb sent. (To whom did they send a postcard?)

§  He bought his son a bike - his son is the indirect object of the verb bought. (For whom did he buy a bike?)