Choose the most suitable option to replace the highlighted part of the sentence: The judge declared the prisoner as guilty.

Question

Choose the most suitable option to replace the highlighted part of the sentence:

The judge declared the prisoner as guilty.

1. A. guilty for
2. B. guilty (Correct answer)
3. C. as being guilty
4. D. guilty to crime

Correct Answer

Option B — guilty

Detailed Solution & Explanation

The correct answer is guilty.

Key Points

• Declare takes a direct object followed by a complement, with no linking preposition: *declare something/someone + adjective or noun*.
• So the correct form is "declared the prisoner guilty" — inserting as is redundant and ungrammatical here.
• The other options add further unnecessary words (*for*, *as being*, *to crime*).

Additional Information

• Verbs that take an object plus a bare complement, never *as*: declare, consider, call, name, elect, appoint, make, find — "They elected him chairman", "The court found him innocent".
• Consider is the classic trap: "considered him a genius" is correct; "considered him as a genius" is not.
• Verbs that genuinely do take *as*: regard as, describe as, refer to as, view as, treat as — "regarded him as a genius" is correct.
• Learning the two lists against each other is more reliable than judging by ear, since both patterns sound acceptable in speech.