Dear Dr Fingers, I’m a teacher working in a secondary school in Spain and I have a grammar-related problem. I recently saw this sentence: “I gave my brother a bicycle” Is it possible to change the order and write the sentence like this?: “I gave a bicycle to my brother.” Is this correct? And if it is correct, why do we have to use the preposition “to”? Please help me Dr Fingers. All the best, Puri (by e-mail).
Dear Purificación (I do like to use full names - it is so much more civilised), Thank you very much for your interesting question. I will try to answer it for you. This question is really complicated, so if you’re feeling a bit tired, I suggest you come back later. Right, are you ready? OK, let’s get started. Well, as I’m sure you know, there are many verbs in English that can be followed by two objects. Some of these verbs include, “give”, “buy”, “send”, “bring” and “write”. For example: