Direct Objects

What is a Direct Object?

Nouns and pronouns serve different functions in language, depending on how they are being used. They can serve as subjects, objects that receive the action (direct objects) and objects of prepositions, which include indirect objects. For this reason it is important for students to understand the different functions that these nouns and pronouns serve in a sentence in communication.

What is a direct object?
A direct object is defined as the object that is receiving the action, the action refers to the action that is being done. For example, in the sentence:

Marcos is kicking the ball to his friend John in the park.
Marcos patea la pelota a su amigo Juan en el parque.

To help you identify the direct object in a sentence, here are a few questions you may ask to direct you to the direct object in the sentence.

Question 1: What receives the action of the verb patea?
The ball is what is getting kicked, it is what is receiving the full action of the verb and is the direct object of the sentence.

Question 2: The direct object of a sentence in active voice can become the subject of a sentence in passive voice.
La pelota fue pateado a su amigo Juan por Marcos is grammatically correct and has the same meaning as the first sentence. Thus, we see that la pelota is the direct object of the original sentence.

Pronouns to replace the Direct Object

Just like in English, Spanish has a way for communicators to be more efficient when they are speaking to avoid repeating names or things. In conversation this is common.

Example:

Mark: Hi, Mary! Did you do the homework for history?
Mary: Hi, Mark! Yes! I got it done last night, finally!
Mark: Awesome! I had do it before the weekend because we were in St. Louis all weekend with family.

In this example, you can see that "homework" is the topic of the discussion and instead of repeating "homework" over and over again in their conversation they use a direct object pronoun, "it" to avoid unnecessary repetition. What was done? Because the "homework" is what answers the question, it is the direct object because it is what is receiving the action or verb.
In English, the direct object pronouns are the following:

Examples:
My brother pushed me into the pool at the party.
Mom took you to school this morning?
John gave it to Sarah on Monday.
Antonio sent him to the store to buy bread.
Samantha dressed her for church.
She helped us carry the things into the store.
Justin gave them to the clients after their appointment.

In the examples above, the bolded words are the direct objects because they are what is being acted upon by the verb or action.
In Spanish, they also have Direct Object Pronouns and they are the following:

Here are the above sentences translated into Spanish:
Mi hermano me empujó en la piscina en la fiesta.
¿Te llevó Mamá a la escuela esta mañana?
John lo dio a Sarah el lunes.
Antonio lo mandó a la tienda a comprar pan.
Samantha la vistió para la iglesia.
Ella nos ayudó a llevar las cosas en la tienda.
Justin los dio a los clientes después de su cita.

Direct Object Pronoun Placement

So where do you place the pronouns? As can be seen from the examples above, in English the Direct Object Pronoun is placed after the verb, but in Spanish there are two locations in a sentence that the pronoun can be placed.

Option 1:

Before the Conjugated Verb (if there is only one verb)

Example:

Ella nos ayudó a llevar las cosas en la tienda.
She helped us take things into the store.

Justin los dio a los clientes después de su cita.
Justin gave them to the clients after their appointment.

Option 2:

Connected to the end of the infinitive / gerund OR before the conjugated verb.

Example:

El chef necesita freírlo en el sartén todavía.
El chef lo necesita freír en el sartén todavía.
The chef needs to fry it in the pot still.

El mesero está sacándola ahora mismo.
El mesero la está sacando ahora mismo.
The waiter is getting it right now.