Direct and indirect objects
In addition to functioning as the subject of a verb, nouns can act as the direct object of the verb, or as the indirect object of the verb. In order for a verb to take an object, it must be a transitive verb, a verb that expresses an action that acts upon a recipient.
Direct object: function of the accusative case
The noun that receives the action of a verb in the active or middle voice is called the direct object. In Latin, the accusative case is the normal way to express this role in a clause: the accusative case is enough to show that the verb’s action is done to it.
Hercules killed the eagle (that was torturing Prometheus).
The eagle is what is being killed, so in Latin it goes into the accusative case: aquilam Hercules interfecit
Indirect object: function of the dative case
Some verbs may express actions that also involve a secondary recipient, a person or thing that is affected by or benefits from the action: that noun is acting as the indirect object.
One verb that makes it easy to see the role of the indirect object, in both English and Latin, is the verb “to give.” (Latin grammarians in antiquity thought so, too: we have borrowed our term from the Latin dativus casus, “the case connected with giving.”) In English, we can express the indirect object either by word order or with a preposition such as “to.”
“Hercules gave him (Philoctetes) his divine arrows.” or “Hercules gave his divine arrows to him.”
In both sentences “arrows” is the direct object of the verb “gave”: the gifts are what is being directly affected by the action of the verb. The indirect object in both sentences is “him” (Philoctetes): as the recipient of the gifts, the action of giving affected Philoctetes in a secondary or indirect way. English expresses that by putting the indirect object before the direct object in the sentence, or with the preposition “to.”
Can you think of other verbs in English that frequently have both a direct and an indirect object expressed with this syntax?
In Latin, the indirect object is expressed with the dative case. Word order can be used for other kinds of emphasis.
Hercules suas sagittas diuinas ei donauit