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Tkacka15 Posted 8 years ago
Grammar

He thought it necessary

He thought it necessary.

Is necessary a complement of it and "it" a direct object of thought in the sentence above?

  

Top answer

Hi! Yes, it is. Personally, I would say either He thought of it as necessary or He found it necessary .

  • Hi!
  • Yes, it is.
  • Personally, I would say either He thought of it as necessary or He found it necessary .
  • You think of something as something You find something a certain way
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3 Answers
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Hi! Yes, it is. Personally, I would say either He thought of it as necessary or He found it necessary.

You think of something as something

You find something a certain way

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I don't agree that "it" is the direct object of "thought". "He thought it necessary" is an abbreviated way of saying "He thought that it was necessary", so I would say that "it necessary" expresses the content of what he thought. The example "He thought it too much" may help to illustrate. This can be interpreted in two ways. It can mean that too often he thought "it" (whatever "it" refers to)

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He thought it necessary.


You're half right: it is indeed the direct object of thought, but necessary is the objective predicative complement of the verb thought, not of it.

As CJ mentioned, some people take it necessary as a verbless, or 'small', clause, cf. He thought it was necessary, but I'd say that the

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