<p>In the October 2006 SAT, there's a writing question:
As he [eagerly] awaited the interview [for] the job, Miguel [thought it wise] [suppressing] his nervousness and to display a calm he did not feel. (Oct 2006)</p>
<p>While this question is so popular that it appears on Google search several times, I still nurse doubt on the phrase "thought it wise to suppress". Is it a specific idiom "think it wise to do sth", or does it belong to a more general rule (think + object + adj)? I know "think" is similar to "consider" and "deem", and we do have "I consider him irresponsible". But I've never heard someone say "I think you smart".</p>
<p>So I'd really appreciate if someone could enlighten me. :(</p>
<p>It should be “thought it wise to suppress” due to parallelism.</p>
<p>As he awaited the interview, he thought it wise TO SUPPRESS his nervousness and TO DISPLAY a calm he did not feel.</p>
<p>I want to place emphasis on the “AND,” that is usually a direct indicator of parallel clauses.</p>
<p>@Jarjarbinks23: I know that [suppressing] should be changed to [to suppress]. What I’m questioning is how I should approach that correct answer, because think + object + adj sounds strange to me. Tks anyway.</p>
<p>@ursawarrior I already answered your question in my answer, maybe you didn’t read it fully.</p>
<p>Look at any possible parallelism errors in a sentence… specifically a list. As I said, “and” denotes a “list” of what’s being done, so the clauses linked by that conjunction should be parallel.</p>
<p>@Jarjarbinks23 Umm no I’m not discussing parallelism. 
Let’s consider this sentence then:
“He thinks it wise to suppress his nervousness”.</p>
<p>My question is: is this sentence correct then? If it is, how do we treat the phrase “think it wise”?
Is it an idiom? Cuz I can’t find any idiom like that online.
Or does it belong to a more general structure ( THINK + OBJECT + ADJECTIVE) ? In that case, is saying “I think you smart” OK too?</p>
<p>Just try switching the ing verb for an infinitive and see what sounds better.</p>
<p>“He thinks it wise to suppress his nervousness”</p>
<p>“He thinks it wise suppressing his nervousness” </p>
<p>The second sentence doesn’t sound right. </p>
<p>@humbugs Tks for your response. But I’m questioning the “think it wise” part, not the gerund / infinitive part. :(</p>
<p>Ohh. I’m pretty sure ‘think it wise’ is a subjunctive. either way, I don’t think that’s an error. Can’t be sure though. </p>
<p>it’s not too helpful to parse the phrase too much. you can replace “thought it wise” with “thought that it would be wise,” the two phrases behave the same way. </p>