12. Which of the following is a direct object (affected by the verb) in the sentence 'The nurse helped the patient with the medication'?
Answer: C
The patient is the direct object in the sentence.
In the sentence 'The nurse helped the patient with the medication', the direct object is 'the patient', as it is the entity that is directly affected by the action of the verb 'helped'.
A) Helped
'Helped' is the verb in the sentence and indicates the action being performed. It does not serve as a direct object since it does not receive the action of the verb.
B) Nurse
'Nurse' is the subject of the sentence, performing the action of helping. As the doer of the action, it cannot be a direct object because it is not receiving the action.
C) Patient
'Patient' is the direct object of the verb 'helped'. It is the one who is being assisted by the nurse, making it the recipient of the action.
D) Medication
'Medication' is mentioned in the context of the action but is not the direct object. It refers to what the patient is being helped with, rather than being the entity directly affected by the verb.
Conclusion
The correct answer is 'the patient' because it is the recipient of the action performed by the nurse. All other options either represent the action itself, the subject performing the action, or an indirect reference related to the action, thus failing to identify the direct object in this sentence.