* Direct Objects: A direct object receives the action of a verb. It directly answers the question "What?" or "Whom?" after the verb.
* Prepositional Phrases: These are groups of words that start with a preposition (like "on," "in," "to," "with") and end with a noun or pronoun, called the object of the preposition.
Example:
* Sentence: "The cat chased the mouse."
* Direct Object: "mouse" (The cat chased what? the mouse)
* Sentence: "The cat chased the mouse under the table."
* Prepositional Phrase: "under the table"
* Object of the Preposition: "table"
Important Note: The object of a preposition can sometimes be a noun phrase containing a direct object, but the direct object itself is not part of the prepositional phrase.
Example:
* Sentence: "I read the book about the cat."
* Prepositional Phrase: "about the cat"
* Object of the Preposition: "cat"
* Direct Object: "book" (I read what? the book)