Subjects and objects in English

Subjects and objects

There are some verbs in English which describe an action or event involving only one person or thing. This person or thing is referred to as the subject, e.g.

Jamie arrived early.
A dreadful thing happened yesterday.

Many English verbs, however, involve a second person or thing which is affected or produced by the action described by the verb. This second person or thing is referred to as the direct object, e.g.

She made a vegetable curry.
Jamie married Kate’s sister.
He noticed me.

Less typical examples of direct objects are those involving more abstract concepts which are not necessarily affected or produced by the action described by the verb, but relate to it in some other way, e.g.

She spoke German fluently.
I think she was telling the truth.
Did you have a lovely time?

There are some verbs in English which, as well as involving a subject and direct object, can also allow the speaker to mention a third participant, generally someone who benefits from the action described by the verb or receives something as a result of it. This person is referred to as the indirect object, eg.

Jamie lent her sixty pounds.
Dad has promised Tom a new bike.
I’ll give Alex one of my sandwiches.
Will you show me what you are drawing?
Tell us the truth.

Object order

If a sentence or clause has more than one object, i.e. both a direct and an indirect object, then the general rule is that the indirect object (usually the person who benefits from the action denoted by the verb) is placed before the direct object, immediately after the verb. This is illustrated in the table of examples below: