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Shanks8532 Posted 14 years ago
Grammar

the usage of "suspicious" and "doubtful"

Hello. I don't know the usage of "suspicious" and "doubtful"
If I say, " He looks suspicious (or doubtful)"

1) He is looking weird or shady.
or
2) He is giving a suspicious look to someone because he thinks he did something.

Which one is correct meaning.

I would be grateful if somebody could help me. Yoshi
  

Top answer

The 2 words modify a little differently, Yoshi, so let's examine them separately: He looked suspicious . = He was a shady person. He looked suspiciously at the glass .

— Mister Micawber

  • The 2 words modify a little differently, Yoshi, so let's examine them separately: He looked suspicious .
  • = He was a shady person.
  • He looked suspiciously at the glass .
  • = He thought the glass might contain poison.
  • He looked doubtful .
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4 Answers
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The 2 words modify a little differently, Yoshi, so let's examine them separately:

He looked suspicious. = He was a shady person.
He looked suspiciously at the glass. = He thought the glass might contain poison.

He looked doubtful. = He felt doubt; he was unsure about something.
He looked doubtfully at the glass
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Thank you Mister Micawber!
I didn't know they have 2 different meanings.

I have another question about similar case so I will post it shortly.

Thank you as always.

Yoshi
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Shanks8532suspicious
liable to cause harm; "up to no good"

for X to be suspicious of Y ~ for X to suspect that Y is liable to cause harm
for X to be suspicious to Y ~ for Y to be led to suspect that X is liable to cause harm

Without the of or to phrases you have to guess by context.

CJ
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Emotion: talkativeThanks CJ again! You gave me a further idea that sometimes we have to guess from the contexts, not only from grammatically but
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