Right on that's one I've missed, in a similar vein is:

Borrow me that pen....

(How bout if I lend and you borrow is my usual response)

nick

PS:

I think your sentence:
"recommend me to that lovely lady at your table"
is correct, esp when talking to someone qualified to recommend you.  

but the statement:

"recommend me a good bar in (place you are at on a business trip)"

is completly different.

nick

Sounds like they have left out the indirect object (apparently they think the context is clear).

Even more annoying is including the indirect object and excluding the direct object. As my 4-year still sometimes says:  "Give me!"

=====================================
Eng-tips forums: The best place on the web for engineering discussions.

.... I guess that next time I should say "All right, who do you want me to give you to?"

=====================================
Eng-tips forums: The best place on the web for engineering discussions.

Hmmm. Maybe I missed the point of the original post.

Was the complaint similar to what Nick said: "Recommend me a good bar..."

=====================================
Eng-tips forums: The best place on the web for engineering discussions.

No, I think the complaint was what jimbo said.  NickE, just re-iterated the original post.

OK. I think I misunderstood jimbo's original post on first read-through.   but I understand it after re-reading Nick's post which contained an example "Recommend me a good bar"

Sometimes I'm a little slow at these things

So "Give me the ball" would be a parallel sentence structure. (although not necessarily incorrect because give and recommend may demand different useage).

Out of curiosity, Is there any problem with "Give me the ball" incorrect (should we prefer "Give the ball to me"?)

=====================================
Eng-tips forums: The best place on the web for engineering discussions.

"Give me the ball" sounds OK because "to"  is understood.

Meaning "give the ball to me".

Buy a dictionary, keep it nearby and USE it. Webster's New World Dictionary of American English is recommended, and Webster's Collegiate Dictionary.

So why isn't the "to" understood in the "recommend me" case?

Rewrite the two sentences a bit.

"Give the ball to me."

"Recommend a good bar to me."

While I would never use "recommend me" as it sounds awkward, I don't see why it is "wrong".

Recommend me to ==> means the you are the object to be recommended to some entity.
  
Recommend to me ==> means you are the entity to which the object will be recommended.

Cajun,
You lost me.  Hmmm can I get away with that here?

Anyway, even tho* I would not say "recommend me" but might say "give me the ball," I don't understand your answer to MintJulep.  What is the distinction between the two examples?

*I have a bad habit of dropping the ugh on though when writing informally sort of like dropping the o_gh when we use thru on engineering drawings which I also use in informal writing.  Does that bug anyone here since we are writing about formal writing?
 

Jesus is THE life,
Leonard

The distinction that I was trying to make is that the two statements:
Recommend me to a good bar and
Recommend to me a good bar mean two different things.

In the first sentence, I envision a bar tender looking for a job and asking a friend to put in a good word on their behalf.  The second statement implies that "me" is looking for a good place to have a drink.

So what does the sentence Recommend me a good bar mean?  If the "to" is implied, I submit that it's ambiguous, even in context, to know which object belongs to the preposition.

Give me the ball.
Give the ball to me?
Give me to the ball?

=====================================
Eng-tips forums: The best place on the web for engineering discussions.

Get me to the church on time?