0I am eating a pizza.
She woke up at 5am.
We bought a bouquet for our mother.
Hmm. Read the sentences. And again. What's happening? What are the elements that you notice?
We shall look at the three major elements of a sentence. Subject-Verb-Object. It could be direct, indirect or a prepositional object. Let's learn the differences between these.
I am eating a pizza.
She woke up at 5am.
We bought a bouquet for our mother.
Now, let's take a look at these sentences again. We see the 'doer' of the sentence; we see the action happening either directly or indirectly -
1. I am eating a pizza = the pizza is being eaten, the action is taking place on the pizza.
2. I woke up (at 5am) = the prepositional object only supports the verb by giving extra information, otherwise this sentence doesn't necessarily need an 'object'. For e.g. I am sleeping (on the floor).
3. We bought a bouquet for our mother = now here, the bouquet is being bought, but the prepositional object ‘our mother’ is not the recipient of the action or the ‘verb’. It’s the bouquet. Therefore, ‘a bouquet’ is here the direct object and ‘our mother’ is the indirect object.
While learning German, you would often see these words - Nominativ, Akkusativ, Dativ. They stand for 'subject' or the doer, followed by direct object and indirect object, respectively.
