What is a direct object?

Ex...Mrs. Johnson calls the student to the office. What would be the direct object?

1 Answer
Feb 23, 2016

The direct object would be the student.

Explanation:

First you need to know what an object is. Let's look for one in a sentence. For example - "Suzy hits the ball."

Let us remember that:
subject --> doer of the action
object --> receiver of the action

Since Suzy is the doer of the action, therefore, she is the subject.
Since the ball is the receiver of the action, then it is the object. Why? Since the ball is being hit. It receives the action that Suzy has done.

There are two types of objects:
direct and indirect

Answering your question, a direct object answers the question "what" or "whom."
Let's use the same example. Suzy hits the ball.
In this sentence, the ball is the direct object. (What did Suzy hit? The ball.)

Let's use your given example.
Mrs. Johnson calls the student to the office.
The student is the direct object. (Whom did Mrs. Johnson call? The student.)

On the contrary, an indirect object answers "to whom" or "to what."
e.g. She sent her mother a postcard from Italy.
Her mother is the indirect object. (To whom did she send her postcard? Her mother.)

Hope this helped!