People always seem to have problems with these. A friend of mine came up with the best way to get people to remember the difference, but, alas, you can’t use it with high school students.
He did her. (Her is the direct object, directly receiving the action of the verb.)
He did it to her. (Her is the indirect object, only indirectly getting that action.)
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August 31st, 2007 02:37
heehee
That would have definitely got my attention. I’m pretty sure that my favourite English teacher would have chuckled at that too.
August 31st, 2007 07:09
But that just clears it all right up! Perfect!
August 31st, 2007 09:41
You could have used that with our class… just think of the fun comments you would have invited
August 31st, 2007 10:14
hee hee hee
August 31st, 2007 10:44
Jennie — What, you WANTED me to get fired?
August 31st, 2007 11:03
Just tell the board you forgot the add “…a favor.” at the beginning. It was an innocent mistake, really!
August 31st, 2007 11:03
Oooops…I meant at the end, not the beginning.
August 31st, 2007 11:26
Except if you turn the sentence into “He did her a favor” her becomes the indirect object. What he is actually doing is the favor, and he is doing it for her, so the example doesn’t hold up any more.
August 31st, 2007 12:05
I had one high school teacher who used this sort of thing in her teaching. I remember EVERY SINGLE THING SHE EVER SAID. I’ll bet the rest of the class does, too. I ran into an old classmate the other day, and I said, “I still remember how to spell ‘rhythm’ by saying…” and we finished together: “…ride hard, you thick-headed monster.”
September 4th, 2007 01:34
Wouldn’t “her” in your second sentence actually be the object of the preposition, not the indirect object? (Since “to” is a preposition…)
September 4th, 2007 08:48
Ah, you’ve got me on a technicality. However, since I use this kind of trick to teach Latin and am always looking for a tricks to help translation (translate the dative, which is the indirect object more often than not, with “to” or “for” in this case) it still has pedagogical possibilities.
and He threw her the book perhaps?
September 4th, 2007 12:48
“Except if you turn the sentence into “He did her a favor” her becomes the indirect object. What he is actually doing is the favor, and he is doing it for her, so the example doesn’t hold up any more.”
Oh fine, be right then. See if I care.
September 5th, 2007 23:45
I would love to see such a lesson work with the transitive verb lay and the intransitive verb lie.
The word lay, in the present tense always should have a direct object.
The word lie, in the present tense never has a direct object.
So, in keeping with your sexy example, I would think that students could remember that, grammatically speaking, when one lays someone, there is an agent of the deed and a grammatical recipient. Someone gets laid.
But with lie, as in “I’m going to lie down”, no one gets laid.
So you can lay carpet, lay linoleum, lay your lover, but you don’t get tired and lay down.
You lie down.
I know you know this, but i’m an English teacher and I was just trying out a lesson.
No lie.