Thursday, November 27, 2014

grammar - Adverb vs. direct object











Consider the following sentences:





  • She went home.


  • He swam yesterday.




Are the words "home" and "yesterday" adverbs or direct objects? Why? They both seem to modify the verb, but they are also both nouns.


Answer




She went home.





"Home" is an adverb in this sentence. The word "went" can't take a direct object because it is an intransitive verb. This distinction is a difficult one to make. The wikitionary page goes more in depth about the use of the word "home" as an adverb.




He swam yesterday.




"Yesterday" is also an adverb. Any time word or expression that describes when something happened is an adverb. This is also the case for locations. Moreover, swam is also an intransitive verb, which cannot take a direct object.


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