[Grammar] Determine

[RakeFlake]

Suppose people are discussing the cost of a project (1 million dollars):

"They calculated the cost of the project."
"They determined the cost of the project."
"They calculated one million dollars for the cost."
"They determined one million dollars for the cost."

Could all of them be acceptable English?

 

[Raymott]

Suppose people are discussing the cost of a project (1 million dollars):

"They calculated the cost of the project."
"They determined the cost of the project."
"They calculated one million dollars for the cost."
"They determined one million dollars for the cost."

Could all of them be acceptable English?

The last two aren't natural. Try:
"They calculated one million dollars as the cost of the project".
"They determined one million dollars to be the cost of the project."
"They calculated the cost of the project as one million dollars."

However, a better sentence would be:
"They calculated/determined that the cost of the project was/would be 100 million dollars."

 

[RakeFlake]

Thank you for your reply, Raymott!

nytimes.com/2011/08/01/nyregion/audit-faults-mta-on-subway-service-changes.html
"The auditors assumed that each of the 3,332 projects was unproductive 10 percent of the time and calculated $10.5 million in costs that could have been avoided."

So, NY Times made an error?

 

[Raymott]

Thank you for your reply, Raymott!

nytimes.com/2011/08/01/nyregion/audit-faults-mta-on-subway-service-changes.html
"The auditors assumed that each of the 3,332 projects was unproductive 10 percent of the time and calculated $10.5 million in costs that could have been avoided."

So, NY Times made an error?

I don't think you could say NYT made an error based on my post. I have "calculated one million dollars" in one of my example sentences. The above sentence is good.
But you don't calculate a certain amount for the cost (or I wouldn't). You calculate it as the cost.

 

[RakeFlake]

Thank you, Raymott!

Could "determine" be used like:

"They determined one million dollars to be the cost of the project."
"They determined the cost of the project to be one million dollars."
"They determined Peter to be the suspect."
"They determined the suspect to be Peter."
?

 

[Raymott]

Thank you, Raymott!

Could "determine" be used like:

"They determined one million dollars to be the cost of the project."
"They determined the cost of the project to be one million dollars."
"They determined Peter to be the suspect."
"They determined the suspect to be Peter."
?

Again, the first two are good. The second two would also be good if they determined Peter to be the killer, for example.
You don't have to be the perpetrator to be a suspect; there may be many suspects, therefore you can't determine one person to be the suspect.
You might say, "They determined Peter to be a suspect." But you can't fix 4. this way.