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

[donnach]

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]

Yes. Exactly.

I call it "objective complement" however.

 

[Unardin]

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]

Yes.

 

[donnach]

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]

"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]

"If" can also be a function word.