TOEIC Grammar Basics - What is an indirect object?

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What is an indirect object?

An indirect object is a person (or thing) which receives the direct object. There must be a direct object in a sentence in order to have an indirect object.

For example:

Susan gave her mother a note.
Franklin sold the farmer his new insurance policy..
Does the company pay its workers a good salary?
Pass him a copy of the new report, please, because he missed the last meeting.

Notice that in each case, there is a direct object (note, policy, salary, report) which is given to the indirect object (mother, farmer, workers, him). Another way to know if the object is indirect is to re-arrange the sentence using to . For example, Suzanne gave a note to her mother.

Select the indirect object in each of the following sentences:

Paola brought the children a lot of new toys.
The salesperson told us the specifications of the new product.
Gina sent our branch in Tokyo the money.
The engineers built the workers a new factory last year.

Click below for the correct answers:

Paola brought the children a lot of new toys.
The salesperson told us the specifications of the new product.
Gina sent our branch in Tokyo the money.
The engineers built the workers a new factory last year.