Grammar 6

 

Ditransitive Clauses

Ditransitive clauses are far less common than the three patterns you have already studied. In fact, the ditransitive pattern is rather rare: It's only used with verbs related to "giving" or "doing something for someone."

The pattern for this clause is "Subject / Verb / Indirect Object / Direct Object". We represent this pattern like this: (SVOiOd).

  Subject Verb Indirect
Object
Direct
Object
ditransitive
(SVOiOd)
Bob gave Judy flowers.

Note the following points:

  Subject Verb Indirect
Object
Direct
Object
transitive
(SVO)
Bob gave   flowers
ditransitive
(SVOiOd)
Bob gave Judy flowers.

Here are more examples of ditransitive sentences.

Subject Verb Indirect Object Direct Object
I gave the monkey a banana.
George offered Greta a sandwich.
She baked her grandmother a cake.
They asked me a question.
The accident taught us a lesson.
Mr. Peterson assigned the class homework.
Phillip gave the dog a bone.
Mom read Katie a book.
Nana gave Tim a bath.
Eli poured Mary some water.

Instructions for the Quiz

Identify the underlined portion of the sentence.

Quiz