Comments on: Direct and Indirect Objects

By: raymond pert

raymond pert — Thu, 06 Sep 2007 03:45:41 +0000

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.

By: Alice

Alice — Tue, 04 Sep 2007 16:48:13 +0000

“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.

By: Stacie

Stacie — Tue, 04 Sep 2007 12:48:19 +0000

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?

By: Becca34

Becca34 — Tue, 04 Sep 2007 05:34:16 +0000

Wouldn’t “her” in your second sentence actually be the object of the preposition, not the indirect object? (Since “to” is a preposition…)

By: Swistle

Swistle — Fri, 31 Aug 2007 16:05:36 +0000

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.”

By: Stacie

Stacie — Fri, 31 Aug 2007 15:26:56 +0000

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.

By: Alice

Alice — Fri, 31 Aug 2007 15:03:33 +0000

Oooops…I meant at the end, not the beginning.

By: Alice

Alice — Fri, 31 Aug 2007 15:03:14 +0000

Just tell the board you forgot the add “…a favor.” at the beginning. It was an innocent mistake, really!

By: Stacie

Stacie — Fri, 31 Aug 2007 14:44:15 +0000

Jennie — What, you WANTED me to get fired?

By: kate

kate — Fri, 31 Aug 2007 14:14:47 +0000

hee hee hee