Ajay plays the big, black grand piano. Teagan watches television. Some verbs do not need an object to make sense. These either: Work alone, as in, ‘Connor screamed.’ Describes a ‘state’ as in, ‘Maire ...

Like the subject, the object is usually a noun (‘the piano’) or a noun phrase, (‘the big, black piano’). Verbs that take objects describe some kind of action rather than a state of being.

“I’ll dress warm,” I wrote to friends recently in a group email about a get-together on the patio of a local café. What happened next will sound familiar to every careful user of the English language: ...