WRITING LESSON: Expanding a Sentence by Adding Direct Objects

Subject - Verb - Direct object

Examples:
1) Joseph (S) reads (V) books (DO).
2) Asia (S) called (V) Lily (DO) and said, "Wazzup, dude?".

DEFINITION: DIRECT OBJECT
A direct object can only come after a transitive verb, and answers the questions "What?" or "Whom?"
What does Joseph read? Books. Therefore, "books" is the direct object.
Whom did Asia call? Lily. Therefore, “Lily” is the direct object.

DEFINITION: TRANSITIVE VERB
A transitive verb is a verb that needs a direct object to be complete.
Example: "The shelf holds." "Holds" does not seem complete, so we add a direct object, to make the sentence read "The shelf holds books." Because "holds" needs a direct object, we call it a transitive verb.

DEFINITION: INTRANSITIVE VERB
Some verbs are intransitive, because they do NOT take a direct object. Example: "The train arrived four hours late." In this sentence, "arrived" cannot take a direct object, so we call it an intransitive verb.