The word “object” in grammar refers to one of the important elements that can make up a sentence (or clause). The simplest type of sentence contains only a subject and a verb--for example, “She left.” The subject of this simple sentence is “she,” and the verb is “left.” But many sentences contain an additional, grammatically important element, which is an object, as in the sentence “She left her umbrella.” Moreover, some sentences contain two objects, as in the sentence “She left her son her valuable paintings.”
Below are examples of sentences that contain grammatical “objects.”
I bought a book.
I bought my friend a book.
We saw that movie you were telling us about.
Dad made us some sandwiches.
There are two types of objects that can directly follow a verb in a sentence. One is the “direct object” and the other is the “indirect object.” In the sentences above, the words in italics are indirect objects. The second object in each sentence is the direct object. Both types of objects are composed of nouns, or words or phrases that can function as nouns.
As we have seen, sentences can contain both types of objects at the same time, as in the sentence “She’s reading the child (1) a story (2).” In this sentence, the direct object is “a story,” and the indirect object is “the child.” In addition, the meaning of the indirect object typically includes the idea of “to” or “for” so that instead of saying “She’s reading the child a story,” the same basic meaning can be conveyed by saying “She’s reading a story to the child.” (Please see note below marked with asterisk as well as INDIRECT OBJECT for further discussion.)
If there is only one object in a sentence, it is understood as the direct object. Therefore, if we removed the words “a story” in the sentence “She’s reading the child a story,” we are left with the fairly strange “She’s reading the child,” wherein the child becomes the thing that is being read. If there is an indirect object in a sentence (and it is not paraphrased with a prepositional phrase), it always occurs as the first object after the verb. Therefore, a sentence like *“He bought gifts me” is either wrong or very hard to interpret--someone is buying a person for gifts?? But, if we say “He bought me gifts,” we understand that gifts are the things that were bought, and that he bought the gifts for me.
For further explanation of these terms, see DIRECT OBJECT and INDIRECT OBJECT in this glossary. In general, if someone uses just the word “object” in reference to English grammar, it is the “direct object” that is usually meant. The term “object” is also sometimes used to refer to a noun or noun equivalent that follows a preposition to form a prepositional phrase (e.g, “The cow jumped over the moon.”) This type of object is called an “object of a preposition.”
*The above discussion concerning the order of objects in a sentence refers to the order in “active” sentences. In active sentences, English uses the order SUBJECT+ VERB +INDIRECT OBJECT + DIRECT OBJECT, as in “The college sent each student a letter.” In associated “passive” sentences, either one of the objects can become the grammatical SUBJECT of the sentence, as in “Each student was sent a letter by the college” or “A letter was sent to each student by the college.”