A ditransitive construction is a grammatical structure that involves a verb taking two objects: a direct object and an indirect object. This construction typically indicates an action where something is given, shown, or told to someone. For example, in the sentence "She gave John a book," "a book" is the direct object, and "John" is the indirect object. Ditransitive constructions are common in many languages and can vary in form. In English, they can be expressed in two ways: using the indirect object before the direct object, as in the previous example, or by using a preposition, as in "She gave a book to John." This flexibility allows for different emphases in communication.