ditransitive verb

In grammar, a ditransitive verb is a verb which takes a subject and two objects (normally a direct object and an indirect object). Some examples involving ditransitive verbs include:

He gave Mary ten dollars
He passed Paul the ball
Jean read him the books
She is baking him a cake

These sentences can be written alternately with a preposition as:

He gave ten dollars to Mary
He passed the ball to Paul
Jean read the books to him
She is baking a cake for him

In some cases the first form sounds wrong or at least unusual:

He gave me it vs. He gave it to me
I reported you the problem vs. I reported the problem to you

And in some cases the second form sounds wrong:

Give me a chance vs. Give a chance to me
Let's catch us some fish vs. Let's catch some fish for us

Most of these rules are arbitrary and are learnt only with experience by native speakers. Many ditransitive verbs have a passive voice form which can take a direct object. Contrast the active and two forms of the passive:

Jean gave the books to him
The books were given to him by Jean
He was given the books by Jean

See also transitive verb and intransitive verb.

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