Where is the direct object?

[Nola]

Where is the direct object in the following sentence?
'My beautiful Siamese cat died yesterday on the side of the road.'

[ian2]

Where is the direct object in the following sentence?
'My beautiful Siamese cat died yesterday on the side of the road.'

An object to a verb or to a preposition? In the above sentence, there is no object to the verb, because the verb DIED is not a transtive verb. But you can say "the side of the road" is an object to the preposition ON.

Object to verb: I read books. (books is the direct object)
I gave you a book. (a book is the direct object, and you indirect object.

[ian2]

I didn't finish it:

I read books in the room. (room is object to the preposition IN.

[Pugwin]

Exactly correct ian2.

Students should be careful of Prepositional Phrases. They contain a Noun which may fool many into believing they are an Object, but as ian2 pointed out, they are only Objects of Prepositions, and so are not useful for grammar in this way.