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I know that I can say:

I consider this idea important.
I deem this film stupid.
I regard my health as important.

But can I say:

I think money/health/love/etc. important.

Or does it have to be:

I think money/health/love/etc. is important.

Or are both okay?

RegDwigнt
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Marcel
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    Not normally. That would require B-Raising and To be-Deletion to both apply to a complement of think. That doesn't occur, though there may be vestiges of it in more complex constructions. Verbs that mean the same thing like believe, as you point out, work this way. But think doesn't; verbs often vary in this kind of syntactic possibility. – John Lawler Apr 21 '15 at 13:27

1 Answers1

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Here are a few specialized constructions of this sort:

We do not think it necessary to go. ("think it A" where "A" is an adjective)

Some people do not think it important to be thrifty. (same as above)

She did not wish him to think it possible. (same as above)

I think it fair that ... (same as above)

I thought it over carefully. ("think it over" is a fixed phrasal verb)

It seems that for "think", one cannot use it with two 'objects' as in "think X Y", and only in the idiomatic construction "think it X" where "it" can only refer to a concept or idea, not physical things.

Community
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user21820
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    Should "I thought it carefully over" have an asterisk to indicate that it's not used? ✲I thought it carefully over. Phrasal verbs are normally not split: I thought it over carefully. – Andrew Leach Apr 23 '15 at 08:53
  • @AndrewLeach: There is a tendency not to split phrasal verbs, but it does happen, and I as a native speaker did not find anything wrong with the particular wording I used, though after reading yours I agree that your version is more frequent. For example, consider "got/stood straight up from the seat", "came right back to me", "come completely apart", "life goes straight on". I admit that these examples all have the inserted adverb having a certain type of semantic meaning, but I'm not sure people really don't use other types of adverbs this way. – user21820 Apr 23 '15 at 09:35