Nouns are traditionally defined as words that refer to people, places, things, and ideas. A subcategory of nouns, pronouns are words that take the place of nouns, noun phrases, noun clauses, and other grammatical forms. A noun phrase is a phrase that consists of a noun including a pronoun plus any modifiers, complements, or determiners.
In grammar, an indirect object is word, phrase, or clause that indicates to or for whom or what the action of a ditransitive verb is performed. In addition to nouns and noun phrases, pronouns frequently function as indirect objects in English. Examples of pronouns as indirect objects include the following:
- Bring me some cake. (personal pronoun)
- The neighbor bought him a toy car. (personal pronoun)
- My boss gave her a much deserved raise. (personal pronoun)
- Give that a good scrubbing. (demonstrative pronoun)
- You mailed whom a letter? (interrogative pronoun)
- She sent who a sample? (interrogative pronoun)
- The criminal stole somebody a new car. (indefinite pronoun)
- The teacher gave both a passing grade. (indefinite pronoun)
Pronoun as Indirect Object
References
Brinton, Laurel J. & Donna M. Brinton. 2010. The linguistic structure of Modern English, 2nd edn. Amsterdam: John Benjamins Publishing Company.
Hopper, Paul J. 1999. A short course in grammar. New York: W. W. Norton & Company.
Huddleston, Rodney. 1984. Introduction to the grammar of English. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
