What are objects?

Objects are the things that receive the action of a sentence.  For instance, consider “I kicked the ball.”  The ball received my kick, so the ball is the object.  There are two types of objects: a direct object (DO) and an indirect object (IO).

What’s the difference between a direct object (DO) and an indirect object (IO)?

A direct object is an something that directly receives the action.  When you kick the ball, the ball is the direct object (DO).  Now suppose you kick the ball to Alison Wonderland.  She is indirectly affected by your kick, so Alison Wonderland is an indirect object (IO).  Indirect objects tend to be people that are affected by what you did to a direct object.

 

Uh, examples please?

 

I kicked the ball to Alison.

• DO: the ball
• IO: Alison

They won three games.

• DO: games
• IO: none

I kissed a girl.

• DO: a girl
• IO: none.

And I liked it.

• DO: it
• IO: none

Katy Perry wrote a letter.

• DO: a letter
• IO: none

Katy Perry wrote a letter to Obama.

• DO: a letter
• IO: Obama

Katy Perry wrote Obama a letter.

• DO: a letter
• IO: Obama

Write me a song!

• DO: a song
• IO: me

Cry me a river.

• DO: a river
• IO: me

How do I use objects in English?

Good news!  You already know how to use objects in English, whether or not you’re aware of it.  In English, objects tend to come right after the verb (e.g. I told you something.  Charlie bit me!  They challenged us to the ALS ice bucket challenge.  Just do it!)

How do I use objects in Spanish?

Buena pregunta 🙂 good question.

Big-picture answer: it’s the opposite of English.  In English, you put objects right after the verb, and in Spanish you tend to put objects right before the verb.

More detailed answer: in Spanish, you have two choices of where to put objects in the sentence:

• right before the conjugated verb
• glued on to the end of an infinitive verb (or a gerund, but don’t worry about that for now)

 

How do I distinguish between IOs (indirect objects) and DOs (direct objects) in Spanish?

 

• When using DOs, choose from the following pronouns: me, te, lo, la, los, las.
• When using IOs, choose from the following pronouns: me, te, le, les.

Uh, examples please?

 

Lo amo = I love him/it (which one? depends on context)

La amo = I love her/it

Lo odio = I hate him/it

La odio = I hate her/it

¿El mensaje? Lo escribo. = The message?  I write it.

Te lo escribo. = I write it to you.

Te escribo. = I write to you.

Where can I watch some Vines that use objects?

 

8-21-14: A Sample (Una Muestra)

8-25-14: Wednesday Vine – dubbed scene from Titanic

9-3-14: Wednesday Vine – insisto

9-8-14: Monday Vine – es rápido

9-10-14: Wednesday Vine – sólo una vez