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In colloquial speech the nominative case form who often replaces the objective form whom. In this case the
preposition can only be placed at the end of the sentence.
Who did you give the money to?
2. In attributive clauses.
This friend of his whom she had shown the letter to did not appear to know anything.
The man to whom she had given two loaves of bread never came back.
3. If the object is to be made more emphatic for the sake of contrast.
To you he’s telling his tales, not to me.
The indirect non-recipient object
§ 77. The indirect non-recipient object is a prepositional object that follows both transitive and intransitive
verbs and completes their meaning, The indirect non-recipient object may be preceded by various prepositions.
I thought about it a good deal.
Invention arises from idleness.
How would you deal with the problem?
I could hardly stand on my skates then.
The formal object it
§ 78. Some verbs cannot take an infinitive object or a clausal object. In this case the formal object
it
precedes the notional object. It is called introductory (or anticipatory) it. The sentence thus has two objects, the
formal object it and a notional object, which is an infinitive or a clause. The formal object it may be either a
direct object, or an indirect non-recipient object.
1. As a direct object it occurs after the verbs to take, to like, to find, to understand, to learn and some others.
Is she to take it that everything is ..?
I understand it that you are my wife’s brother.
We found it difficult to talk to him.
2. As an indirect non-recipient object it occurs after certain verbs which take objects with obligatory
prepositions: to count (on), to depend (on), to hear (of), to insist (on), to object (to) and some others.
He objected to it that they should be taken to the island too.
§ 79. There is another use of
it as formal object: it can be attached to transitive or intransitive verbs to
convey a very vague idea of some kind of an object.
I was angry. I made him take the present away. An hour later he returned and we made it up.
We therefore decided that we would sleep out on fine nights, and hotel it, and inn it, and pub it, when it
was wet.
The cognate object
§ 80. The verbs that most frequently take a cognate object are:
to live (a life), to smile (a smile), to laugh (a laugh), to die (a death), to sigh (a sigh), to sleep (a sleep), to