Indirect object

Some sentences contain two objects:
  We gave David the prize.
The two objects here are David and the prize. The element the prize is
the direct object (What did we give David? – The prize). The other object,
David, is called the indirect object (IO). Here are some more examples of sentences with two objects:

                                                    
                                           Indirect object         Direct object
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They awarded                   James                       a salary increase.

She told                              her husband            the news.

I asked                                him                          a question.

The postman brought       us                              a package.

When two objects are present in a sentence, the indirect object comes first, followed by the direct object, so the pattern is:

Sentence pattern 4
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S                       V                            IO                          DO

We                   gave                        David                   the prize.

Pattern 4 sentences can often be rewritten as follows:

We gave David the prize.         We gave the prize to David.