[Grammar] direct object, main and auxiliary verbs

[tt2803]

Hello teachers,

me and a friend of mine are learning for our state exams and there are things which are not quite clear to us. The first question regards the direct object. In the sentence:

- He wanted to keep his job. - Is the direct object "to keep his job" or is it only "his job" ?

And the second question is about auxiliary and main verbs. We basically understand what auxiliaries and main verbs are, but what about the sentece -

- I dont want to know it. - "dont" is auxiliary, but is the main verb "want" or is it "to know"?

Please, help us out.

Thank you in advance

 

[cereal_chick]

Hello teachers,

Me* and a friend of mine are [STRIKE]learning[/STRIKE]** for our state exams and there are things which are not quite clear to us. The first question regards the direct object. In the sentence:

- He wanted to keep his job. - Is the direct object "to keep his job" or is it only "his job"?

And the second question is about auxiliary and main verbs. We basically understand what auxiliaries and main verbs are, but what about the sentence - (Probably just a typo)

- I don't+ want to know it. - "don't"+ is auxiliary, but is the main verb "want" or is it "to know"?

Please, help us out.

Thank you in advance.*
* Capital letters at the beginning of every sentence, and full stops at the end.
** I would say "revising" or "studying" – learning is what you have done throughout the year.
+ "Don't" is a contraction of "do not" and such it has an apostrophe to mark the missing letters.

Objects are, by definition, nouns. "To keep" is a verb, and so cannot possibly be part of the direct object. "His job" is the direct object. As for the second question, I'm not sure, but I think the main verb is "want", because it is the action of the clause done by the subject (and "to know" is an infinitive). English people aren't taught English grammar anymore and I only just looked it up. A teacher could tell you for certain.

PS: Well done on your written English; take note of your mistakes and be sure to not repeat them.

[Not a teacher]

 

[tt2803]

Objects are, by definition, nouns. "To keep" is a verb, and so cannot possibly be part of the direct object. "His job" is the direct object. As for the second question, I'm not sure, but I think the main verb is "want", because it is the action of the clause done by the subject (and "to know" is an infinitive). English people aren't taught English grammar anymore and I only just looked it up. A teacher could tell you for certain.

PS: Well done on your written English; take note of your mistakes and be sure to not repeat them.

[Not a teacher]

Thank you very much for your response. You have no idea how much you cheered me up with your PS message.
As for the mistakes you´ve highlighted, I was just typing quickly so I didn´t pay attention to my spelling. But the one with "learning" was really useful I didn´t know it is used in such a way.

 

[Barb_D]

Infinitives can be used as nouns. "To keep his job" is a noun phrase in this case.

 

[Raymott]

"me and a friend are studying..."
I'd say the lack of a capital at the beginning of a sentence is the lesser problem here.
'Me' is not a subject pronoun. You need "A friend and I are studying..." or "I'm studying with a friend..." or some other construction that doesn't use "Me is ..." or "Me are ..."

 

[MikeNewYork]

Objects are, by definition, nouns. "To keep" is a verb, and so cannot possibly be part of the direct object. "His job" is the direct object. As for the second question, I'm not sure, but I think the main verb is "want", because it is the action of the clause done by the subject (and "to know" is an infinitive). English people aren't taught English grammar anymore and I only just looked it up. A teacher could tell you for certain.

PS: Well done on your written English; take note of your mistakes and be sure to not repeat them.

[Not a teacher]

Why bother correcting the capitalization of a pronoun that is incorrect? It should be "My friend and I". "To keep" is not a verb; it is an infinitive (a verbal). As such, It can be used as a noun. "His job" is the direct object of the infinitive (verbals retain that possibility). Many English speaking people in the US are still taught grammar.

If you are going to answer questions here, please try to be accurate.

 

[Raymott]

Why bother correcting the capitalization of a pronoun that is incorrect? It should be "My friend and I".

Why bother giving the same answer as a post that's already been made?

 

[MikeNewYork]

Why bother posting that?

 

[Raymott]

Why bother posting that?

It makes you appear like you don't read the thread before you answer. Just alerting you to the fact.

 

[MikeNewYork]

I don't think my post was a duplicate. I recommended a different beginning than you did. Did that offend you in some way? I also dealt with the infinitive, which you did not. Regardless, I am still free to post what I think is useful, ne'st-ce pas?

 

[tt2803]

"me and a friend are studying..."
I'd say the lack of a capital at the beginning of a sentence is the lesser problem here.
'Me' is not a subject pronoun. You need "A friend and I are studying..." or "I'm studying with a friend..." or some other construction that doesn't use "Me is ..." or "Me are ..."

Thank you for your correction. I appreciate it because I believe it is one of the best ways how to learn a foreign language. I would probably use the same construction next time, although it sounded strange to me when I reread my post.

 

[MikeNewYork]

Are you talking about "Me and a friend are"? If so you will risk the thought that you are uneducated. It is up yo you.

 

[tt2803]

Why bother correcting the capitalization of a pronoun that is incorrect? It should be "My friend and I". "To keep" is not a verb; it is an infinitive (a verbal). As such, It can be used as a noun. "His job" is the direct object of the infinitive (verbals retain that possibility). Many English speaking people in the US are still taught grammar.

If you are going to answer questions here, please try to be accurate.

Thank you for your response. So according to you only "his job" is the direct object? I thought I could say that "to keep his job" is, but it didn´t sound correct to me.

 

[MikeNewYork]

Well, let me be clear. "To keep his job" is an infinitive phrase. The infinitive phrase is a noun phrase that acts as the direct object of "wanted". Inside the infinitive phrase, "his job" is the direct object of the infinitive "to keep". As I told you, infinitives are verbals, not finite verbs, but they maintain the ability to take direct objects.

 

[tt2803]

Well, let me be clear. "To keep his job" is an infinitive phrase. The infinitive phrase is a noun phrase that acts as the direct object of "wanted". Inside the infinitive phrase, "his job" is the direct object of the infinitive "to keep". As I told you, infinitives are verbals, not finite verbs, but they maintain the ability to take direct objects.

Thank you very much. Now it is pretty clear to me. In addition, thank you for correcting my contruction at the beginning (me and a friend of mine). I´m not a native speaker so I appreciate it when a native speaker corrects my mistakes. I believe it´s really useful. Now I know that I should use a different construction.