Examples

Sorry, we had to give you a super simplified example sentence because the action that happens with a ditransitive verb is just way too much to handle.

So, the act of giving always involves:

• The person doing the giving (subject)
• The thing being given (direct object)
• The person or thing receiving the direct object (indirect object)

In linguistics, you can refer to these participants as arguments: the subject is the agent (or do-er), the direct object is the theme, and the indirect object is the recipient, beneficiary, or goal.

"Maximus...prepare to meet thy doom."

We're pretty sure that's how it went down, except with like...ominous music. And evil laughter. And explosions. (We owe you a fun sentence after our first example.)

Plain and simple, here are the participants of this sentence:

• Claudius = subject
• Maximus = direct object
• archenemy = indirect object

Maximus is the person that's being introduced to his archenemy.

Thadeus sounds like a friend we want to have. The verb bought can certainly be used without a recipient ("I bought a boat."), but there's always an implied recipient; if you buy something, it's usually always for someone or for the benefit of someone—even if it's yourself.

The arguments of this sentence can be broken down like so:

• Thadeus = subject
• an entire pizza = direct object
• Chad = indirect object

Okay, now will you give us Thadeus' number?