Indirect object and Prepositional object probem
Hi, I'm confused about IOs and POs.
As I understood, IOs answer the question "to whom or for whom" and stands between the verb and the DO. The following examples confuse me because the IOs are preceded by a preposition and have no direct object.
a. He has separated [from his wife.]
In my opinion [from his wife] is a PO because I don't see anywhere a DO but am I right?
b. All the credit for this belongs [to our sales staff.]
I don't understand the function of [to our sales staff]. It answers the question "to whom" so it looks like an IO but it already has the preposition "to" making me think that it's in fact a PO.
c. He lectures [to the students] [on drama].
Since 'to' is a preposition but [to the students] answers to the question 'to whom'. I don't understand why it's different from [on drama] which is a PO.
Please help me.
Re: Indirect object and Prepositional object probem
a. He has separated [from his wife.]
In my opinion [from his wife] is a PO because I don't see anywhere a DO but am I right? - Yes.
He has separated from his wife.
Subject - Intransitive verb - Prepositional phrase
b. All the credit for this belongs [to our sales staff.]
I don't understand the function of [to our sales staff]. It answers the question "to whom" so it looks like an IO but it already has the preposition "to" making me think that it's in fact a PO. - "Belong to" is the verb..
Subject - credit
transitive verb - belongs to
direct object - staff
c. He lectures [to the students] [on drama].
Since 'to' is a preposition but [to the students] answers to the question 'to whom'. I don't understand why it's different from [on drama] which is a PO.- This sentence should be "He lectures the students on drama."
Pattern would be Subject-Transitive verb-Direct object
IO only exists in this pattern:
I - Subject
gave - Transitive verb
mom - Indirect object
a hug - Direct object.
I - subject
bought - transitive verb
my son - indirect object
some candies - direct object.