grammar question...difference between direct and indirect object

Actually, we don't have (use) these terms in German.
The terms direct and indirect object originate from English grammar and are essentially the same as our terms of accusative and dative object.

In my opinion, the terms are not suitable for correctly designating an object in German, but they are a help for a foreign language learner in the beginning.

If you have a language without a case system as your mother tongue (e.g. French, English, Chinese), you often learn the general rule :
• convert direct object to accusative;
• convert indirect object into dative.

However, one must then also learn that a sentence element that is a direct object in the mother tongue does not always correspond to a (German) accusative object.

thx...can you explain why the article for Mann is different in the two sentences ? Is it because of the verb hilfen ?

The article is the same - only "der" in accusative and dative.

But you are correct: it's because of the verb helfen - helfen is one of the verbs expressing their object in the dative.

>This pdf-page< gives example sentences with various verbs expressing their object in dative and accusative.

Danke. es ist jetzt ein bisshen Klar.

No problem.

If you don't mind Danke. es ist jetzt ein bisshen Klar would be better "Danke, jetzt ist es ein bisschen klarer".

hope you don't mind if I come across additional question to ask you. I had 2 years of German way back in the 1970's so may get stuck as I tutor my son...Thanks agaim