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Tenacious Learner Posted 13 years ago
Grammar

Question on Object Pronouns (2)

Hi teachers,
The blue part is to be completed by the students. For 'b' which question is the best to be asked?
Mary and Peter are looking at the people on the beach.
a) Who is performing the action? Mary and Peter (are).
Consequently the subject of the sentence is Mary and Peter.

b) Who is affected by the action? / Who is receiving the action? / Who is the receiver of the action? The people are.
Consequently the object of the sentence is the people.

Thanks in advance.
  

Top answer

Goodness gracious! This is not going to work. The subject part is OK, but 'people' is the object of the preposition 'at', not the (direct) object of the sentence.

— CalifJim

  • Goodness gracious!
  • This is not going to work.
  • The subject part is OK, but 'people' is the object of the preposition 'at', not the (direct) object of the sentence.
  • The verb 'look (at)' is not the one you want to start with.
  • It will cause no end of confusion.
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9 Answers
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Goodness gracious! This is not going to work. The subject part is OK, but 'people' is the object of the preposition 'at', not the (direct) object of the sentence.

The verb 'look (at)' is not the one you want to start with. It will cause no end of confusion. In your place I would start with action verbs and very simple sentences if I wanted to introduce the concepts of subject a
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CalifJimIn your place I would start with action verbs and very simple sentences if I wanted to introduce the concepts of subject and direct object.
Hi Jim,
Thanks for your help. You're right! I shouldn't start with verbs that have particles at the end.
These are the ones I'm going to use for the exercise. I have the drawings for them too.
Peter is
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Tenacious LearnerWho is affected by the action? / Who is receiving the action? / Who is the receiver of the action?
I think this one will cover most cases:

Who or what is affected by the action?

Possibly,

Who or what is the recipient of the action?

Both receiver and recipient are OK. I prefer
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Hi Jim,
Thanks for your reply. Including what in the question really helps when the object is an animal or a thing.Emotion: yes

TL
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CalifJimHowever, in the case of 'give the cat a fish', 'the cat' is the recipient, but 'a fish' is the (direct) object, so 'receiver' or 'recipient' will become problematic when you try to explain the difference between a direct object and an indirect object. For this reason I would reserve 'receiver' or 'recipient' for discussions about indirect objects.
Hi J
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What are you going to do in the cases where the object isn't affected by an action?

I have a sister.
The glass contains water.
We finally reached Madrid.

The sister, the water, and Madrid are not affected in these sentences. You may have to avoid verbs like these in your first lessons on objects.
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CalifJimWhat are you going to do in the cases where the object isn't affected by an action?
I will tell them this:
With verbs that do not express actions, subject pronouns simply substitute the subject of a sentence.
With verbs that do not express actions, object pronouns simply substitute the object of a sentence.
Is that right?
You may
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Tenacious LearnerIs that right?
I may have misunderstood your goal. I thought you were trying to explain what an object is, but it seems you are explaining the use of pronouns, which presupposes that the student already knows what an object is.

Your explanation is all right, but you need 'substitute for', not just 'substitute'.

CJ
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CalifJimI may have misunderstood your goal.
Hi Jim,
If you have, it's probably my fault.
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