ditransitive

In linguistics, a ditransitive verb is a verb that takes two object arguments, typically a direct object and an indirect object. The direct object represents the theme or patient of the action, while the indirect object designates the recipient, beneficiary, or goal.

In English, ditransitives are commonly realized in two word orders: the double object construction, as in "She gave John a book," where the indirect object precedes the direct object; and the prepositional dative, as in "She gave a book to John," where the indirect object is expressed with a preposition.

Common ditransitive verbs include give, lend, show, tell, send, offer, and promise. Some verbs regularly participate in ditransitive constructions, while others allow only a prepositional form or are not ditransitive in certain senses. The exact pattern can vary by dialect and language.

From a syntactic perspective, ditransitives involve two internal arguments; some languages encode them with dative case or applicative morphology, whereas others rely on prepositions. The availability of double-object versus prepositional datives varies across languages and may affect passivization and the assignment of semantic roles.

Ditransitives are contrasted with monotransitive verbs, which take a single object, and with intransitive verbs, which take no object.