Verbs that take double objects

Structure

As in English, some verbs in Chinese take two objects (these are known as "ditransitive" verbs). The classic example for English is "to bake someone a cake", and there are countless more. The structure in Chinese is:

Subject + Verb + Direct Object + Indirect Object

If you don't know what direct and indirect objects are, don't worry - the terms can be thought of as "object 1" and "object 2". The main point is that there are two of them.

Examples

• 我 问 老师 一 个 问题。
• 我 给 我 朋友 一 瓶 啤酒。
• 她 找 你 一 个 女 朋友。

Sources and further reading

Books

• Integrated Chinese: Level 1, Part 1 (pp. 182-3) →buy
• New Practical Chinese Reader 1 (新实用汉语课本1) (pp. 165-6) →buy
• New Practical Chinese Reader 1 (新实用汉语课本1)(2nd ed) (pp. 187-8) →buy