Breakdown of Hij brengt het hem vandaag.
hij
he / it (referring to a 'de'-word)
vandaag
today
het
it
brengen
to bring (to a destination)
Questions & Answers about Hij brengt het hem vandaag.
Why is there no Dutch word for "to" (like aan) in this sentence?
In Dutch, when a sentence has an indirect object (the person receiving the action, which is hem here), you can often drop the preposition aan. This is similar to English, where you can say "He brings him a gift" instead of "He brings a gift to him".
Why is the word order het hem ("it him") instead of hem het?
When a Dutch sentence has two objects and both are short pronouns, the direct object (the thing being brought, het) must come before the indirect object (the person receiving it, hem). If these were regular nouns instead of pronouns, the order would actually be the opposite: the person would come before the thing, as in Hij brengt de man het boek.
Why is vandaag at the end of the sentence? Don't time words usually come early in Dutch?
You are right that time words like vandaag usually want to sit right after the verb. However, unstressed pronoun objects like het and hem are "lighter" and take priority. They must stick immediately to the verb, which pushes the time expression further back in the sentence.
If I wanted to include aan to emphasize "to him", how would the sentence change?