Buy you breakfast

Question

Hello, not long ago I learned that in addition to 'buy sth.', and I could also say 'buy sb. sth.' ; now I'm reading the word 'build' being used this way too. I'm wondering is this a common usage that applies to most verbs ? thanks.

Mr Wordy · Accepted Answer

No, I don't think most verbs. If you pick an English verb at random then I think the likelihood is that it can't be used in this way. Compiling a complete list would be a lot of effort (one would basically need to read the dictionary); here are a few more that come to mind:

"write someone (a note)"

"draw someone (a picture)"

"sell someone (a car)"

"bake someone (a cake)"

"pass someone (the salt)"

"give someone (a present)"

"ask someone (a question)"

These can usually (always?) be reworded using a preposition (e.g. "bake a cake for someone", "sell a car to someone"), but the preposition varies, and the semantic relationship between "someone" and the verb also varies considerably, depending on the verb.

Possibly there is a technical word for verbs like this, but I don't know what it is. Perhaps someone else here will know? Then with that keyword you could perhaps find a list somewhere on the internet.

Mr Wordy · Answer

I remembered later (well, half-remembered and then had to check) that these are called "ditransitive verbs". See e.g.

I found a list at http://www.cse.unsw.edu.au/~billw/ditransitive.html . I don't know how complete this claims to be; you may be able to find a longer one somewhere else.

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