Meaning of suspect as a Verb and a Noun?

[Linh Bui Hoang]

My task is to rewrite the following sentence using "suspect": It is my strong belief that John was responsible

I rewrote it in 2 ways: I strongly suspect John of being responsible and I strongly suspect that John was responsible

But my friend did it differently: I have no suspect to John's responsibility

In fact, I have never seen "have no suspect to N" before but "have no suspect to V"
And I feel the meaning in his way has changed.
But he told me that my answers were opposite to the original meaning.
The matter is that he is much better at English than me and I'm not satisfied with his answer

[Yankee]

Hi Linh Bui Hoang

You are right and your friend is not.
I'd say your second sentence is the better of your two:

- I strongly suspect that John was responsible.
.
.
Your friend's sentence is so oddly worded that is basically nonsensical. However, the meaning seems to be the opposite of the original sentence -- not the same as the original.

Maybe your friend is mixing up the words 'suspect' and 'doubt'. Your friend could say one of these, for example:

- I have little/no doubt about John's responsibility.
- I have little/no doubt that John was responsible.
.
.
I really have no idea what your friend was trying to do with 'have no suspect to N' or 'have no suspect to V'.
.
_________________
Amy
.
ESL teacher, and native speaker of American English

[Daemon99]

[Linh Bui Hoang]

Thank all of you so muchhhhhhh

[Barb_D]

Just to throw in a monkey wrench - I strongly believe that John is the most likely suspect.

But really, your second sentence, as Amy said, is the best of the lot.