Glossary
direct object
A direct object is the noun or pronoun that receives an action verb — the answer to "what?" or "whom?" after the verb.
A direct object is the noun or pronoun that receives an action verb's action. It answers what? or whom? straight after the verb: in the aide recorded the output, the verb is recorded, and the output is what was recorded.
Three tests settle it. The question — ask what? or whom? and the answer is the object. The passive — a sentence with a direct object can be turned round so that the object becomes the subject: the output was recorded by the aide. The linking verb — a linking verb takes no object at all, so the dressing was loose has a predicate adjective rather than an object, and she is the charge nurse has a predicate nominative.
A direct object is never inside a prepositional phrase. The nurse handed the chart to the aide has one object, the chart; to the aide is a prepositional phrase. Only when the preposition disappears — the nurse handed the aide the chart — does the aide become the indirect object, which is the pair this term is most often confused with.
Taught in
Related terms
- indirect object — An indirect object is the noun or pronoun that receives the direct object — the "to whom?" or "for whom?" — and it appears only when a direct object is already there.
- predicate nominative — A predicate nominative is a noun or pronoun after a linking verb that renames the subject, as in "Ms. Okafor is the charge nurse".
- clause — A clause is a group of words with its own subject and verb; an independent clause can stand as a sentence, a dependent one cannot.
Source: The grammar guide in this course, whose conventions follow the US Government Publishing Office's Style Manual for standard written American English, with standard grammar references for agreement, case, tense and sentence structure. The GPO manual is US federal government material, not subject to copyright in the United States. Every definition and example above was written for this course; no reference text is reproduced. (GPO Style Manual accessed 2026-10-27; definitions written 2026-10-27)