Which words are the direct and indirect objects of this sentence?

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donnach

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He told me to paint the house red.

1. Does the I.O. = me?
2. Does the D.O. = to paint the house?
3. Is red an object complement?

Thanks!
 

Frank Antonson

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Yes. Exactly.

I call it "objective complement" however.
 

Unardin

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He told me to paint the house red.
He told me that.

me = indirect O.
to paint the house red = direct O. in inf. clause form

the sub-clause:

to paint = V
the house = DO
red = C (objective complement)
 

Frank Antonson

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donnach

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Thanks!

What about this one:

He asked me whether I wanted to rent the flat.

How can "whether I wanted to rent the flat" be a direct object if it is a subordinate clause? (I thought an object had to be a noun, noun clause, noun phrase, or phrase that can act as a noun such as prepositional phrases do.

Thanks again :).
 

Frank Antonson

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"whether" is of course short for "whether or not" . I have learned to call it a "function word" like "that" in "He said that I should rent a flat". It has the function of saying, "Here comes a noun clause."
 

Frank Antonson

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"If" can also be a function word.
 
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