Henry gave his wife some flowers.
Here the verb give has two objects.
Wife is the indirect object.,the person receiving something. Some flowers is the direct object, the thing that someone gives.
Henry gave some flowers to his wife.....
Here give has a direct object (some flowers) and a phrase with to.
To comes before wife the person receiving something...
Indirect Object Direct object
Emma gave Rachel a CD.
I'll send my cousin a postcard.
We bought an ice-cream.
Direct object phrase with to and for
Emma gave the cd to Rachel.
I'll a postcard to my cousin.
We bought ice-cream for all the children.
TO OR FOR?
We give something to someone, and we buy something for someone.
We can use to with these verbs: bring, feed, give, hand, lend, offer, owe, pass, paypost, promise, read, sell, send, show, take, teach, tell, throw and write
We can use for with these words : book bring build buy choose cook fetch find get leave make order pick reserve and save