About This Worksheet
This Grade 7 Language Arts worksheet helps students locate direct objects after transitive verbs. Students first underline the transitive verb and then circle the noun or pronoun receiving the action. If the sentence contains a linking verb or an intransitive verb, they write “No Direct Object.” For example, in “The photographer captured the sunset,” captured is the transitive verb and sunset is the direct object.
Learning Goals
The main goal is to help students understand that not every verb is followed by a direct object. Students should already be able to recognize action and linking verbs. This activity moves them toward testing whether the action passes to a noun or pronoun by asking “what?” or “whom?” after the verb. It supports CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.L.7.1 through focused practice with verbs, objects, and sentence structure.
Student Tasks
On this worksheet, students will read fifteen sentences and underline the transitive verb whenever one appears. They will circle the direct object and write it on the answer line. When a sentence contains no direct object, they will clearly mark that instead. The examples include action verbs such as captured, handed, designed, performed, fixed, considered, organized, and checked, along with linking and intransitive verbs that provide contrast.
Common Challenges
Some students may mistake a word after a linking verb for a direct object. In “The milk smells sour,” sour describes the milk and does not receive an action. Others may circle a noun inside a prepositional phrase because it appears after the verb. Encourage students to ask the verb directly, “Verb what?” or “Verb whom?” without using a preposition.
Teaching Suggestions
A teacher can model the direct-object test with one sentence that has an object and one that does not. Students can cover extra phrases and read only the subject, verb, and possible object. At home, a parent can ask the child to point out who performs the action and what receives it. If nothing receives the action, the sentence has no direct object.
Worksheet Features
The worksheet includes fifteen mixed examples rather than only sentences with obvious objects. This forces students to distinguish transitive verbs from linking and intransitive ones. The two-step marking system-underlining the verb and circling the object-makes the sentence relationship easy to see. This page works well for direct-object review, verb classification, homework, or an independent grammar check.