Ditransitive verb

In grammar, a ditransitive verb is a verb which takes a subject and two objects (normally a direct object and an indirect object). Some examples of ditransitive verbs include:

• He gave Mary ten dollars.
• He passed Paul the ball.
• Jean read him the book.
• She is baking him a cake.
• You made me a liar

Which can be written:

• He gave ten dollars to Mary
• He passed the ball to Paul
• Jean read the book to him
• She is baking a cake for him
• You made a liar of me

In some cases the first form sounds wrong or at least unusual:

• He gave me it vs He gave it to me
• I reported you the problem vs I reported the problem to you
• We reported the police the crime vs We reported the crime to the police

And in some cases the second form sounds wrong:

• Give me a chance vs Give a chance to me
• Let's catch us some fish vs Let's catch some fish for us

Most of these rules may seem to be quite arbitrary and are learnt only instinctively by native speakers.

See also transitive and intransitive.