{"id":1365,"date":"2015-03-25T09:00:49","date_gmt":"2015-03-25T16:00:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/toefl\/?p=1365"},"modified":"2020-12-10T13:46:19","modified_gmt":"2020-12-10T21:46:19","slug":"how-to-make-a-sentence-object-placement","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/toefl\/how-to-make-a-sentence-object-placement\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Make a Sentence: Object Placement"},"content":{"rendered":"

A while back, Kate did a good post on how to make a sentence<\/a>. In that post, she gave you some basic information about object nouns. In English grammar, these are sometimes just called objects<\/em>.<\/p>\n

To review Kate\u2019s lesson, there are direct objects, objects that are directly affected by the action described in the verb. A direct object appears in bold<\/strong> in the sentence below:<\/p>\n

The boy gave a gift. <\/strong>(<The gift is being given.)<\/em><\/p>\n

Then there are indirect objects, objects that are not being directly acted on. Indirect objects are only indirectly affected by the action described in the verb. Example in bold <\/strong>below.<\/p>\n

The boy gave his friend<\/strong> a gift. (<The friend is not being given.)<\/em><\/p>\n

There are also prepositional objects. Prepositional objects show a relationship between nouns that is not necessarily related to an action. They often show the position, movement, or time period of a noun. See the examples of prepositional objects below in bold<\/strong>, with the preposition in italics<\/em>.<\/p>\n

I wake up in<\/em> the morning<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s go to<\/em> school<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

The cow jumped over<\/em> the moon<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Knowing how to use these three kinds of objects and where to put them seems simple enough at a glance. Object placement becomes a little tricky, however, when you need to vary<\/em> the ways that you use object nouns. Part of getting a good TOEFL Speaking and Writing score is using a variety of words and grammar forms, and not all uses of direct, indirect and prepositional objects are as straightforward as the ones above.<\/p>\n

In fact, you can sometimes use a few different possible patterns to say the exact same thing. In some cases, a direct object noun can actually be turned into a verb. Or an indirect object can be changed into a prepositional object. An object can also become an adjective, and so on.<\/p>\n

These kinds of changes can make your language more varied and earn you more points on the TOEFL. You can see examples of this variety in the sentence sets below. Each set has the same meaning, expressed in several different grammar patterns.<\/p>\n

SENTENCE SET 1:<\/strong><\/p>\n

The man and woman<\/em> gave<\/strong> each other<\/span> a kiss.<\/p>\n

(PATTERN: Subject<\/em>>verb<\/strong>>indirect object<\/span>>direct object)<\/p>\n

The man and woman<\/em> kissed<\/strong> each other.<\/p>\n

(PATTERN: Subject><\/em>verb<\/strong>>direct object)<\/p>\n

The man and woman<\/em> gave<\/strong> a kiss to<\/span><\/em><\/strong> each other<\/span>.<\/p>\n

(PATTERN: <\/span>Subject<\/em>><\/span>verb<\/strong>>direct object><\/span>preposition<\/span><\/em><\/strong>><\/span>prepositional object<\/span>.)<\/span><\/p>\n

SENTENCE SET 2:
\n<\/strong>The artist<\/em> made<\/strong> an illustration for<\/span><\/em><\/strong> a children\u2019s book<\/span>.<\/p>\n

(PATTERN: Subject><\/em>verb<\/strong>>direct object>preposition<\/span><\/em><\/strong>>prepositional object.)<\/span><\/p>\n

The artist<\/em> made <\/strong>a children\u2019s book<\/span> illustration.<\/p>\n

(PATTERN: <\/span>Subject<\/em>><\/span>verb<\/strong>><\/span>adjective<\/span>>direct object.)<\/span><\/p>\n

SENTENCE SET 3:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Grandma<\/em> baked <\/strong>a cake for<\/span><\/em><\/strong> her grandchildren.<\/span><\/p>\n

(PATTERN: Subject><\/em>verb<\/strong>>direct object>preposition<\/span><\/em><\/strong>>prepositional object.)<\/span><\/p>\n

Grandma <\/em>baked<\/strong> her grandchildren<\/span> a cake.<\/span><\/p>\n

(PATTERN: Subject<\/em>>verb<\/strong>>indirect object<\/span>>direct object)<\/p>\n

As you can see above, one of the best ways to put some variety into your English language is to change the objects of sentences, turning them into direct objects, indirect objects, prepositional objects, or even verbs or adjectives. If you haven\u2019t played around with this kind of grammar variety before, it can be easy to make mistakes. In my next post on this topic, I\u2019ll show you some common object placement mistakes, and how to avoid them.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A while back, Kate did a good post on how to make a sentence. In that post, she gave you some basic information about object nouns. In English grammar, these are sometimes just called objects. To review Kate\u2019s lesson, there are direct objects, objects that are directly affected by the action described in the verb. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":80,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13603],"tags":[],"ppma_author":[13630],"class_list":["post-1365","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-grammar"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nHow to Make a Sentence: Object Placement - Magoosh Blog \u2013 TOEFL\u00ae\ufe0f Test<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/toefl\/how-to-make-a-sentence-object-placement\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"How to Make a Sentence: Object Placement\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"A while back, Kate did a good post on how to make a sentence. 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Additionally, he's helped students with TOEIC, PET, FCE, BULATS, Eiken, SAT, ACT, GRE, and GMAT. David has a BS and MA from the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire and an MA from the University of Wisconsin-River Falls.","sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/MagooshEnglishLearning","https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/david-recine\/","https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/channel\/UCra3KQoJlOP7RYwaCyH2qew"],"knowsAbout":["TOEFL","IELTS","TOEIC","PET","FCE","BULATS","Eiken","SAT","ACT","GRE","GMAT"],"knowsLanguage":["English","Italian"],"jobTitle":"Content Creator","worksFor":"Magoosh","url":"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/toefl\/author\/davidr\/"}]}},"authors":[{"term_id":13630,"user_id":80,"is_guest":0,"slug":"davidr","display_name":"David Recine","avatar_url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/b70c17ee6f3ef87dc4cc5dbdebda911d6dd30dfe15845e4b1d459a3e1b33ef98?s=96&d=mm&r=g","user_url":"","last_name":"Recine","first_name":"David","description":"David is a Test Prep Expert for Magoosh TOEFL and IELTS. Additionally, he's helped students with TOEIC, PET, FCE, BULATS, Eiken, SAT, ACT, GRE, and GMAT.\r\n\r\nDavid has a BS from the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire and an MA from the University of Wisconsin-River Falls. His work at Magoosh has been cited in<a href=\"https:\/\/scholar.google.com\/scholar?hl=en&as_sdt=0%2C50&q=Recine+magoosh&btnG=\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"> many scholarly articles<\/a>,<a href=\"https:\/\/minds.wisconsin.edu\/handle\/1793\/65479\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"> his Master's Thesis<\/a> is featured on the<a href=\"https:\/\/www.readingwithpictures.org\/2013\/09\/research-highlight-teaching-english-language-learners-with-comics\/\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"> Reading with Pictures<\/a> website, and he's presented at the<a href=\"https:\/\/www.witesol.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/2014-WITESOL-Program-FINAL-10-28-14.pdf\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"> WITESOL (link to PDF)<\/a> and<a href=\"https:\/\/issuu.com\/interoff\/docs\/nafsaregionv_2014conference\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"> NAFSA<\/a> conferences. David has taught K-12 ESL in South Korea as well as undergraduate English and MBA-level business English at American universities. He has also trained English teachers in America, Italy, and Peru.\r\n\r\nCome join David and the Magoosh team on<a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/channel\/UCra3KQoJlOP7RYwaCyH2qew\"> Youtube<\/a>,<a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/MagooshEnglishLearning\"> Facebook<\/a>, and<a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/magooshenglish\/?hl=en\"> Instagram<\/a>, or connect with him via<a href=\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/david-recine\/\"> LinkedIn<\/a>!"}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/toefl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1365","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/toefl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/toefl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/toefl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/80"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/toefl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1365"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/toefl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1365\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/toefl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1365"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/toefl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1365"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/toefl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1365"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/toefl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ppma_author?post=1365"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}