First you need to know what an object is. If the subject of a sentence is doing something to someone, that someone or something becomes the object of the sentence.
Now it might help you if you know what the term "case" means. It's the grammatical function of a noun or pronoun, thankfully almost extinct in the English language, but we haven't buried it yet.
A noun or pronoun is in the objective case when it is used as a direct object, an indirect object, or an object.
A noun which is directly affected by the action of a verb is put into the objective case. In English we call this noun the "direct object" which is a little more descriptive of its function. It's the direct object of some action.
- Robert fixed the car.
In the example above, the "car" is in the objective case because it's the direct object of Robert's action of fixing.
Pronouns are inflected to show the objective case.
Personal Pronoun |
| Objective/Accusative |
|---|
Referring to the object in a sentence |
Me |
You |
Him |
Her |
It |
Us |
Them |
Whom |
For example:
- The web site gave Lynne a headache.
- Mum gave us the money.
- She gave him the book.