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

Correct option is B

The correct substitution of the highlighted words is (b) guilty.
Explanation: With verbs like declare, consider, find, pronounce, we usually use the pattern Verb + Object + Complement (adjective/noun) without “as.” So, we say “declared the prisoner guilty”, not “declared… as guilty.” The word “guilty” works as an object complement describing the prisoner. Therefore, removing “as” makes the sentence correct and standard.
Grammatical rule used:
· declare + object + adjective/noun complement (no “as”)
· Example: The court declared him innocent.
· Information booster / exceptions related to the topic:
· “Declare as + noun” can appear in some contexts (e.g., declare something as a holiday), but with guilty/innocent in legal sense, the natural structure is declare + object + guilty/innocent.