Verbs that take double objects

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There are some common verbs in Chinese that can take two objects. In this article, we will look at how they are used.

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 + Indirect Object + Direct 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. A simple way to think about it is that the direct object is the thing that the action happens to (e.g. the cake that gets baked) while the indirect object is the recipient of the direct object (e.g. the person the cake is given to).

Examples

  • 老师 一 个 问题wèn le lǎoshī yī gè wèntí. I asked the teacher a question.
  • 了 我 朋友 一 瓶 啤酒gěi le wǒ péngyǒu yī píng píjiǔ. I gave my friend a bottle of beer.
  • 送 给 很 多 sòng gěi hěn duō huā. He gave her lots of flowers.
  • 借给 一 本 jiègěi yī běn shū. I loaned you a book.
  • 爸爸 送 给 一 个 手机Bàba sòng gěi yī gè shǒujī. My dad gave me a cellphone.
  • 妈妈 很 多 的 Māma gěi le hěn duō de ài. Mom gave me a lot of love.
  • 我 想 告诉 一 个 好 消息Wǒ xiǎng gàosu yī gè hǎo xiāoxi. I want to tell you the good news.
  • 你 可以 借给 一 百 块 吗 ? Nǐ kěyǐ jiègěi yī bǎi kuài qián ma? Can you lend me 100 kuai?
  • 大家 都 “怪叔叔”Dàjiā dōu jiào guàishūshū. Everyone calls him “Strange Uncle”.
  • 这 个 人 很 多 Zhè gè rén piàn le hěn duō qián. This person cheated me out of a lot of money.

Sources and further reading

Books