Ditransitive verb
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In grammar, a ditransitive verb is a verb which takes a subject and two objects. Some examples involving ditransitive verbs include:
- He gave Mary ten dollars
- He passed Paul the ball
- Jean read him the books
- She is baking him a cake
These sentences can be written alternately with a preposition as:
- He gave ten dollars to Mary
- He passed the ball to Paul
- Jean read the books to him
- She is baking a cake for him
In some cases the first form sounds wrong or at least unusual:
- He gave me it vs. He gave it to me
- I reported you the problem vs. I reported the problem to you
And in some cases the second form sounds wrong:
- Give me a chance vs. Give a chance to me
- Let's catch us some fish vs. Let's catch some fish for us
Most of these rules are arbitrary and are learnt only with experience by native speakers.
Many ditransitive verbs have a passive voice form which can take a direct object. Contrast the active and two forms of the passive:
- Jean gave the books to him
- The books were given to him by Jean
- He was given the books by Jean
The most common variety of ditransitive verbs take a direct object and an indirect object; the indirect object stands in the dative case. There are other sorts of ditransitive verbs in English, however:
- The state of New York made Hillary Clinton a Senator.
- I will name him Galahad.
See also transitive verb and intransitive verb.