I wrote a letter to him. Is ' to him' the indirect object? Shouldn't it be the object

[Yura Reiri]

I wrote a letter to him. Is ' to him' the indirect object? Shouldn't it be the object of the prep.?





Thank you!

[TheParser]

I wrote a letter to him. Is ' to him' the indirect object? Shouldn't it be the object of the prep.?





Thank you!

***** NOT A TEACHER *****



Hello, Yura Reiri:

(1) Let's analyze your sentence : I + wrote + a letter + to him.

(a) You are 100% correct, most books (not all) say that there is

NO indirect object in your sentence. "To him" is a prepositional

phrase ("to" is the preposition; "him" is the object of the preposition

"to"). The prepositional phrase modifies/ refers to/ belongs to the

verb "wrote."

What did you write? A letter (the direct object).

To whom did you write the letter? To him (a prepositional phrase that

modifies the verb "write").

NOTE: Yes, some teachers want to make this matter easier, so they

call "to him" the indirect object, but most books and teachers do NOT.

On a test, you must, of course, give the teacher the answers that he

expects!!!


***

I wrote him a letter. Now you have a real indirect object: him.

Remember that a real indirect object does NOT follow a preposition.

***

Many times (NOT always) you have a choice: a real indirect object

or a prepositional phrase:

I baked Mona a cake./ I baked a cake for Mona.



I sent Mona some flowers. / I sent some flowers to Mona.

I asked Mona a question./ I asked a question of Mona.

James

P.S. If you do not understand my answer, just start a new

thread (with another example sentence). There are some

wonderful teachers and non-teachers here who can answer

your question better than I.

[5jj]

If you do not understand my answer, just start a new nthread (with another example sentence). There are some wonderful teachers and non-teachers here who can answer your question better than I.

No need. You have covered it.

[Rolex_Cellini]

I wrote a letter to him. Is ' to him' the indirect object? Shouldn't it be the object of the prep.?





Thank you!

Prepositional object it is. See the correspondence:

I wrote a letter to him. (him = object of 'to'; to him = prep. object, aka oblique object)
I wrote him a letter.

, and the lack of it:

He suggested me to leave.
He suggested to leave to me.

He explained this to me.
? He explained me that. --acceptable to some natives