indirect object

Language

2022

We explain what the indirect object is in syntax, how to identify it and various examples. Also, what is the direct object.

The indirect object is often made up of two parts.

What is the indirect object?

In the syntactic analysis of the prayers, the indirect object or indirect object is one of the syntactic constituents that accompany transitive verbs, but which, unlike the direct object, are not usually mandatory, nor do they designate that element on which the action expressed in the verb falls directly .

In other words, indirect objects are one of the syntactic functions that the elements of a sentence (generally a noun or prepositional phrase) can perform, as part of the predicate and optional complements of the verb (that is, they may or may not be and the verb continues to express the totality of its content).

In general, these complements designate people or animated objects, who are the recipients of the action or beneficiaries of it, without being on whom the action falls directly.

For example:

Juan bought her flowers to Maria.

  • Juan: subject of prayer
  • bought: verb of the sentence
  • flowers: direct object (that which is bought)
  • to Maria: indirect object (who receives the flowers)

The indirect object in Spanish is usually always introduced with the pronoun “a”, although there is a discrepancy with respect to the cases with “para”, since for some they are indirect objects and for other circumstantial complements. In any case, they are usually noun phrases or clitic pronouns (te, me, le, se, etc.) or forms of the dative (a ti, me, a él, etc.), as follows:

Juan you bought flowers. (to Maria)

Or also:

Juan you brought flowers to her. (Mary)

Note how often the indirect object contains two parts, to add information or better channel the action of the verb, as in the previous example with you Y to Maria, which despite having to appear together, basically provide the same information.

Finally, the indirect object and indirect object are often abbreviated as OI and CI, respectively.

How to identify the indirect object?

To recognize the indirect object in a sentence, it is possible to resort to the following strategies:

  • If dative pronouns can be used in the sentence ("him", "them" or "to him", "to her", etc.) that allow us to maintain the meaning of what has been said, even when this implies omitting part of it, we will be before an indirect object. On the other hand, if the pronoun required is an accusative (“lo”, “los” or “la”, “las”), it is instead a direct and not an indirect object. For example, the sentence “I am going to buy a gift to my friends", it could be: "I'm going to buythem a gift ”without altering the meaning (evidence that“ them ”substitutes for the indirect object).

But be careful: in some cases, in the presence of an accusative pronoun, the particle "le" must be transformed, for phonetic reasons, into "se", as in "I told Juan a secret", which becomes "Me I know I said" (I know is the indirect object, and it is the direct object).

  • Direct objects are usually introduced by the preposition "a". However, we must be careful to distinguish them from certain direct person objects. To do this, it is convenient to apply the tests to recognize the OD first. For example, in “I brought him a sweet to your daughter”, The evident presence of the direct object (“ a sweet ”) confirms that“ your daughter ”is the OI.

Indirect Object Examples

Here are some example sentences, in which the indirect object is highlighted:

  • I bought a gift for my mother-in-law.
  • A friend brought me this bottle.
  • I tell you again.
  • We were invited to a party in Paris.
  • My aunt got herpes.
  • Your letter arrived in the mail.
  • The champion spared his rivals.
  • Did they pay you the loan?

Direct object

Unlike the indirect object, the direct object (OD) is an indispensable component of transitive verbs, without which they cannot fully express their meaning. This syntactic component is on whom the action of the verb falls directly, and it can usually be recognized because it responds to the accusative pronouns "lo", "los", "la" or "las".

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