{"id":1755,"date":"2017-01-31T20:00:44","date_gmt":"2017-02-01T01:00:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.normfriedman.com\/blog\/?p=1755"},"modified":"2018-07-06T10:17:24","modified_gmt":"2018-07-06T14:17:24","slug":"trust-me","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.normfriedman.com\/blog\/trust-me\/","title":{"rendered":"Trust Me"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"6063142376_cfc80f9ef6_z\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Is this correct? I shouldn’t have believed Pam’s story, but I guess I’m too trustworthy.<\/em><\/p>\n

How about this? When Pete explained why he arrived late, I was suspect.<\/em><\/p>\n

What? You think they’re both wrong? You don’t trust me?<\/p>\n

Okay. You caught me red-handed. They are both incorrect, so let’s review the common confusion.<\/p>\n

We shouldn’t say or write trustworthy<\/em> when we really mean trusting<\/em>, as in the sample above. Someone we have faith in to tell the truth or behave honorably is trustworthy<\/em>. But if we find nearly everyone trustworthy<\/em>, perhaps we are too trusting<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Knowing when to use suspect<\/em>\u00a0vs. suspicious<\/em> isn’t much harder, but the explanation is longer because of multiple meanings. Bear with me.
\n\u2022 Suspicious <\/em>can\u00a0<\/em>describe both our attitude toward someone who is behaving questionably or the object of our suspicion.
\n\u2022 Suspect<\/em>, as an adjective, applies only to the object of our suspicion. For example, I found Polly’s motives suspect<\/em>. (So we were suspicious<\/em> of her motives.)
\n\u2022 And, of course, suspect<\/em> is a noun: The police now have a suspect in custody.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

You can trust me<\/h2>\n

So here are five correct uses of today’s words. Really.
\nWe elected Al as treasurer because he is so trustworthy<\/span>.
\nBrad says he is generally\u00a0trusting<\/span> until he has evidence that he should be wary.
\nCraig’s enthusiasm for every one of Diane’s ideas seems\u00a0suspect.
\n<\/span>Craig’s enthusiasm for every one of Diane’s ideas seems suspicious<\/span>.
\n<\/span>Elaine is suspicious<\/span> of Frank’s claim that he graduated high school at 16.<\/p>\n

You can go to\u00a0http:\/\/www.normfriedman.com\/index.shtml<\/a>\u00a0to learn more about my workshops on writing in the workplace, individual\u00a0coaching, editing, and handbook \u2013\u00a0100+ Instant Writing Tips<\/a>.\u00a0Thank you.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Is this correct? I shouldn’t have believed Pam’s story, but I guess I’m too trustworthy. How about this? When Pete explained why he arrived late, I was suspect. What? You think they’re both wrong? You don’t trust me? Okay. You … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.normfriedman.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1755"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.normfriedman.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.normfriedman.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.normfriedman.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.normfriedman.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1755"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"http:\/\/www.normfriedman.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1755\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1764,"href":"http:\/\/www.normfriedman.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1755\/revisions\/1764"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.normfriedman.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1755"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.normfriedman.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1755"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.normfriedman.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1755"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}