What is a Direct Object?
The Direct object is the main thing in the sentence that is being acted upon.
Example 1. Ram threw the ball. Here “ball” is the direct object as it is being acted upon, it is being thrown by Ram.
Thus, to put it in another word “A direct object is a noun that receives the action of the verb.”
Let’s see another example!
Example 2. The guitarist played the guitar.
Here, “the guitar” is the direct object. And if you will notice, direct object answers whom or what most of the time. In the above example, it is answering “what”.
The guitarist played what? Answer: Guitar.
So, to put it in a grammatically correct way, ask yourself
what was being played by a guitarist? Answer: Guitar.
Example 3. The father scolded me.
The father scolded whom—”an informal way to ask”, but the answer is “ME” which is the direct object.
So, to put it in grammatically correct way, ask yourself
Whom did the father scold? Answer: Me.
So, with the two statements we can understand how to identify the direct object in a sentence.
Direct Objects in English (Meaning & Examples)
Direct Object
In English Grammar, the direct object of a sentence is an object that received the action of the verb. word or phrase that receives the action of the verb is called Direct object. In a sentence, the direct object is the noun or noun phrase that’s receiving the action of the verb. The basic construction is Subject + Verb + Who or What. Now, have a look at the definitions of a direct object, kinds of a direct object and examples of direct objects given below.
Example:
The boys played the game.
In this, the direct object is the “game”. “Played” is the verb and “game” was being played.
So, there might be confusion between Indirect and Direct objects as both are closely related. This article will give you complete information about the direct objects with plenty of examples to make you clear everything about it.