Verbs with two objects: 给, 送, 教
A few verbs take a person and a thing one after the other, with no preposition. The person always comes first.
Structure
主语 + 动词 + 间接宾语（人）+ 直接宾语（物）
Explanation
Chinese words in this text can be activated to show a dictionary gloss.
A small group of verbs can carry two objects at once, and the order never changes: the person comes first, the thing second. “He gave me a book”, “The teacher teaches us Chinese”, “I’ll give you a present.” No preposition is involved — the person is simply the first object. The main members of the group are , , , , , and . and take a piece of information rather than an object, and that information may be a whole clause: “He told me he’s coming tomorrow.” Where is needed it goes on the verb, before both objects: . Most verbs are not in this group. , , and cannot take a person directly; the person is introduced by the preposition in front of the verb: “I bought you a coffee.” Saying changes the meaning to buying the coffee from you, which is why this pair is worth practising deliberately.
Correct
Say each one out loud before moving on. The audio is a reference pronunciation, not a model to imitate exactly — match the tone contour, not the voice.
老师给了我一本词典。老師給了我一本詞典。
Lǎoshī (third tone, dipping) gěile (third tone, dipping) wǒ (third tone, dipping) yì (fourth tone, falling) běn (third tone, dipping) cídiǎn. (second tone, rising)···
The teacher gave me a dictionary.
他送我一个生日礼物。他送我一個生日禮物。
Tā (first tone, high and level) sòng (fourth tone, falling) wǒ (third tone, dipping) yí (second tone, rising) ge (neutral tone) shēngrì (first tone, high and level) lǐwù. (third tone, dipping)···
He gave me a birthday present.
王老师教我们汉语。王老師教我們漢語。
Wáng (second tone, rising) lǎoshī (third tone, dipping) jiāo (first tone, high and level) wǒmen (third tone, dipping) Hànyǔ. (fourth tone, falling)···
Teacher Wang teaches us Chinese.
Incorrect — Common mistakes
These sentences are wrong. They are printed here on purpose, each one paired with the repair and the reason, because the error you can recognise is the error you stop making.
Not quite
Incorrect sentence: 他给一本书我。
Correct
Correct sentence: 他给我一本书。
Why: The person always comes first and the thing second. The order of the two objects is fixed and cannot be swapped for emphasis.
Not quite
Incorrect sentence: 我买你一杯咖啡。
Correct
Correct sentence: 我给你买了一杯咖啡。
Why: 买 is not a double-object verb. The person you are buying for is introduced by 给 in front of the verb; as written, the sentence says you bought the coffee from them.
Not quite
Incorrect sentence: 他告诉给我这件事。
Correct
Correct sentence: 他告诉我这件事。
Why: 告诉 already takes the person as its first object, so adding 给 is redundant and ungrammatical.
Compared with
Most errors with this pattern are not errors about this pattern — they are a neighbouring pattern arriving at the wrong moment. Read these side by side.
Both patterns move a thing and a person around the verb 给, so learners mix the two orders. 给我一本书 introduces something new: “give me a book”. 请把书给我 talks about a book already known to both of you: “pass me the book”. The deciding factor is the one from 把 — an indefinite object (一本书) stays in the ordinary double-object order, while a definite one (这本书, 你的手机) can be fronted with 把: 请把你的手机给我.
The 把 construction →Mini quiz
Question 1 / 3Total score: 0
Arrange the parts to say “The teacher gave me a dictionary.”
Build the sentence