Consecutive nouns as multiple objects
- consecutive nouns can act as multiple objects of a verb
- i.e., two nouns next to one another
- as in "I gave the boy a donut"
- when the action has a direct and indirect object, the indirect object is often preceded by "to" in order to indicate the direct object
- however, we frequently drop the "to", which remains implied in the sentence
- so instead of "I gave a donut to the boy" we simply say, "I gave the boy a donut"
- another ex. "She gave the man grief"
- can also be expressed as "She gave grief to the man"
- the noun "grief" is what was given (direct object) and the noun "man" is to whom the grief was given (indirect object)
- however, we frequently drop the "to", which remains implied in the sentence
Click expand for an example of multiple nouns as objects from CB Writing practice test 10, question 36: