1

I want to know in which situation we don’t use the indirect object.

For instance,

Hand over:

  • He also handed over a letter of apology from the Prime Minister.
  • 'I've got his card,' Judith said, handing it over.
  • Albert bowed and handed over the letter.

These examples are extracted from dictionaries.

Non of them showed the indirect objects

Usually when we use these verbs like give and take, we mention the indirect object.

For instance,

  • Sam gave the Medal to his friend.

Here, as far as i am concerned, I cannot only say “Sam gave the Medal” and stop. I should mention the indirect object “friend”.

But why hand over can be put in a sentence without indirect objects.

For instance,

Hand the money over : which means give me the money.

While with give, i should say “give me the money” here i mentioned “me”.

Improve this question

1 Answer 1

Reset to default
1

In context over can imply a recipient, just as "Give it here" does.

Just as you can hand in your resignation, you can hand over something to an unspecified recipient.

An explicit recipient is never required with hand over. It is not ditransitive like give and has no indirect object slot.

He gave them a book.

The phrasal verb hand over means "to relinquish". That's another verb that requires no explicit recipient.

The recipient with hand over is supplemental info:

He handed over the weapon to the ballistics department for forensic testing.

He handed the weapon over to the ballistics department.

Improve this answer
1
  • That is what i wanted to know. there are some verbs giving meaning even when there are no recipient or indirect object to receive things. For instance, sometimes people say to others “our cousins came over” here came over means they came to their house even if they didn’t mention something about their house or where they live. Correct me if i am mistaken!
    – Bavyan Yaldo
    Dec 14, 2018 at 23:10

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .