He taught John the lesson. In this sentence there is a double object. One can have the sentence "He taught John" as well as the sentence "He taught the lesson." In your example, I don't believe you can have the sentence "Mr. Chorazy assigned the students." Thus, my conclusion would be that when students are included in the sentence they are the indirect object. The other version might be "Two chapters were taught (to) the students." As the indirect object is often defined as the nominal following a stated or unstated "to" or "for", this would suggest also that the students are the indirect object. tj ________________________________ From: Assembly for the Teaching of English Grammar [[log in to unmask]] on behalf of John Chorazy [[log in to unmask]] Sent: Tuesday, December 13, 2011 8:25 AM To: [log in to unmask] Subject: Transitive Verb Good morning... In the following sentence model, which is the direct and the indirect object of the transitive verb? Is reading assigned, or is an implied reader(s) assigned? Funny that I've only today been caused to consider this more closely... Mr. Chorazy assigned two chapters of reading. I could reword this numerous ways: Two chapters were assigned for homework; The students were assigned two chapters, etc. Does either change who/what is actually being assigned? Is "to" implied somehow when using this particular verb? Thank you! -- John Chorazy English III Honors and Academic Pequannock Township High School 973.616.6000 To join or leave this LISTSERV list, please visit the list's web interface at: http://listserv.muohio.edu/archives/ateg.html and select "Join or leave the list" Visit ATEG's web site at http://ateg.org/ To join or leave this LISTSERV list, please visit the list's web interface at: http://listserv.muohio.edu/archives/ateg.html and select "Join or leave the list" Visit ATEG's web site at http://ateg.org/