The Captain’s Log

Toplevel | Pontifications of The Great and Terrible Captain Cucamunga.

Sun, 03 Aug 2025 17:58:22 EDT

To Think

If you pair to think with a noun, the verb is obviously transitive:

I thought good thoughts. I thought my creations into being. I thought, “She was happy.”

In the following sentence, is the subordinate clause the object of the verb, or is the clause a restrictive clause with an elided that?

I thought [that] she was happy.

Unquoted, the subordinate clause does not function as a noun. The Great and Terrible Captain Cucamunga declares that the subordinate clause is a restrictive clause.