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Example with a context:

People expect that same familiarity when it comes to software applications. If you go to pizzahut.com to order lunch and don’t see the red roof logo, you will probably consider the site suspect and order somewhere else. There is comfort in familiarity. When you develop your Access applications, you will likely have to deal with the necessity for branding.

Is this a legitimate grammar pattern? Could you please give me some more examples with this structure?

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  • Could you add the source or a link?
    – user3169
    Commented Feb 10, 2015 at 0:09

2 Answers 2

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"Consider something suspect", meaning "to regard something as suspicious", is absolutely legitimate. I wouldn't even regard this phrasing as idiomatic (regard as, or view as, also work), although it is a pretty common formulation: "suspect" here means "regarded with suspicion or distrust" or "that is an object of suspicion", and "consider" is used in its common meaning of "regard in a certain light".

It could be used in really any number of contexts where suspicion or doubt about a thing is being conveyed: You might consider some food suspect if smells off. You might consider someone's explanation suspect if you have evidence to the contrary. From the OED: "In tropical regions,..all water should be looked upon as suspect and treated accordingly." You might consider a person suspect if he's peering into your car. As far as I can think of, anything that one might view with suspicion for any reason could correctly be "considered suspect".

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I don't think that usage is OK. I would use would instead.

...you would probably consider the site suspect...

because "probably" is not certainty.

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  • Hmm, you will probably consider ... sounds fine to my native ear ... Commented Feb 10, 2015 at 0:50
  • @Araucaria Depends on the context. You could say "As you investigate the crime, you will probably consider many factors." But in the example, we are not sure who would necessarily consider what is being stated.
    – user3169
    Commented Feb 10, 2015 at 1:26
  • If you go to Pizzahut.com, you'll probably find the site suspect seems ok to me ... But that might be my BE ear. Commented Feb 10, 2015 at 1:30

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