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I was thinking about the possibility in a phrase having a ditransitive verb as to if the object pronoun "it" could be used as the direct object. For example;

I give the pencil to him

I give him it. (is this last option correct?)

Greetings.

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    I think it's grammatical but not idiomatic. We say "I give it to him."
    – Barmar
    Commented Sep 4 at 21:02
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    In older times it would have been "I give it him" :-) but today neither is current. Though "gimme it" is not at all unusual in the US, though only in informal contexts.
    – phoog
    Commented Sep 4 at 21:03
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    This question is similar to: Is it incorrect to say, 'Give me it'?. If you believe it’s different, please edit the question, make it clear how it’s different and/or how the answers on that question are not helpful for your problem.
    – Edwin Ashworth
    Commented Sep 4 at 22:08
  • The Brits sometimes do say: Give it him. Otherwise, the standard is: give it to him.
    – Lambie
    Commented Oct 6 at 20:37

2 Answers 2

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I agree with https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ditransitive_verb#In_English; I give him it sounds perfectly fine to me, but to some other native speakers this will sound a bit weird, and for them I give it to him is preferred instead.

English has a number of generally ditransitive verbs, such as give, grant, and tell and many transitive verbs that can take an additional argument (commonly a beneficiary or target of the action), such as pass, read, bake, etc.:

He gave Mary ten dollars.
He passed Paul the ball.
Jean read him the books.
She is baking him a cake.
I am mailing Sam some lemons.

Alternatively, English grammar allows for these sentences to be written with a preposition (to or for): (See also Dative shift)

He gave ten dollars to Mary.
He passed the ball to Paul.
Jean read the books to/for him.
She is baking a cake for him.
I am mailing some lemons to Sam., etc.

The latter form is grammatically correct in every case, but in some dialects the former (without a preposition) is considered ungrammatical, or at least unnatural-sounding, when the direct object is a pronoun (as in He gave me it or He gave Fred it).

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I gave him it.

does not sound idiomatic to me when it is fully articulated. However, this

Where'd that little boy get that pen-knife?!

--I gave'm it.

sounds idiomatic but regional, non-standard.

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