You are already familiar with transitive verbs, meaning verbs that require an object.

Now meet the less known breed called “ditransitive verbs.”

It may sound complicated at first, but once you know what it stands for, it suddenly becomes très facile: As their name says, these are verbs which need one direct object and one additional object introduced by a preposition.

The prefix “di-” in “ditransitive” simply means “two.”

Of course, with a few good examples, things will be much easier to understand.

We’ll give today some of such verbs which go with the preposition “à“, equivalent of the English preposition “to“:

Admettre (to accept), appeler (to call), annoncer (to announce), autoriser (to authorize), conduire (to drive), dire (to tell), forcer (to force), inviter (to invite), obliger (to oblige), rendre (to return), suggérer (to suggest.)

Here is how these verbs can be used in French sentences:

• Admettre un étudiant à l’université (To accept a student to the University.)

• Appeler quelqu’un à la réception (To call someone to the reception.)

• Annoncer la nouvelle à quelqu’un (To tell the news to someone.)

• Autoriser les enfants à regarder la télé (To allow the kids to watch TV.)

• Conduire les enfants à l’école (to drive the kids to school.)

• Dire la vérité à quelqu’un (To tell the truth to someone.)

• Forcer le traitement au malade (To force the treatment to the sick.)

• Habituer son amis à parler en français (To get one’s friends to speaking French.)

• Inviter ses amis au mariage (To invite one’s friends to the wedding.)

• Obliger les gens à consommer plus (To oblige people to consume more.)

• Rendre l’argent à son propriétaire (To give back the money to its owner.)

• Suggérer une proposition à notre équipe (To suggest a proposition to our team.)

→ Fore more French grammar on the Transparent French Blog, read:

• The French RAP of the PARTICIPES PASSÉS
• French Phrases Used as Adverbs
• The Right French Spelling is *Ça va*—Not “Sa va”
• Don’t Let the French Subject of “Le Subjonctif” Subjugate You!
• Learn French Time—In No Time
• 1st Class French Grammar: “Les Classes Grammaticales”
• The 100 Most Frequently Used French Verbs
• Some “Tricky” French Nouns: Change their Gender, Get a Whole New Meaning