Direct and Indirect Objects

When learning a language, differentiating between and knowing when to use direct and indirect objects can be a challenge. An important thing to remember is that there can never be JUST an indirect object without a direct object, but there can be a direct object without an indirect. For instance, in the English sentence ‘I gave him a computer game’, the ‘computer game’ is the direct object because it is the thing that the subject is giving and the sentence ‘I gave a computer game’ would also make sense. The pronoun ‘him’ is therefore the indirect object. Indirect objects are usually preceded by ‘to’ as in ‘to her’, but, in this situation, the ‘to’ is only implied as ‘I gave to him the computer game’ would not read well. The indirect object CAN follow the direct object as well as precede it so ‘I gave the computer game to him’ would make sense. In Italian, the direct object is often replaced by a direct object pronoun that comes before the verb. For instance, ‘non mangia carne’ becomes ‘non lo mangia’. The direct object pronouns are mi (me), ti (you singular), la/lo (her/him/it), ci (we), vi (you plural), and le/li (them). When the indirect object is also replaced by its object pronoun (mi, ti, le/gli, ci, vi, loro), then it precedes the verb AND the direct object pronoun. If we take the sentence ‘He gave it to me’, then the Italian translation would be ‘Me (indirect object pronoun for ‘to me’) lo (direct object pronoun for ‘it’) ha dato (‘he gave’).