[Grammar] Does this sentence sound naturally?

[saloom2]

Hello everyone,

I managed to open the door,but it was too stuck.Unfortunately, I broke it into pieces.

I managed to open the door, but, actually, I broke it into pieces.

Thanks in advance.

 

[emsr2d2]

Hello everyone,

I managed to open the door,but it was too stuck.Unfortunately, I broke it into pieces.

I managed to open the door, but, actually, I broke it into pieces.

Thanks in advance.

Neither sentence is entirely correct.

1) We do not say "too stuck". The door is stuck or it's not. I also find it very unlikely that you could break a whole door into pieces on your own simply by trying to open it. The first part of the sentence says that you did manage to open it. Did you break it or did you open it?

2) The same point applies about breaking a door into pieces. You do not need a hyphen after "door".

I would suggest something like "The door was stuck and it broke when I tried to open it."

 

[Rover_KE]

Saloom, you have been a member long enough to know that

'Thread titles should include all or part of the word/phrase being discussed.'(Posting Guidelines).

A good title for this would have been I managed to open the door.

Rover

 

[saloom2]

Why didn't you say " the door had been stuck and it broke when I tried to open"?

 

[5jj]

Why didn't you say " the door had been stuck and it broke when I tried to open"?

Probably because it's less natural and potentially slightly ambiguous.

 

[emsr2d2]

Why didn't you say "The door had been stuck and it broke when I tried to open it"?

With my amendment above, it's possible but "The door was stuck" is more likely.

 

[saloom2]

Well, you English people drive me crazy!! In my grammar book, it's written that Past participle is for an action before another action in the past, and then when I use it, the sentence becomes less natural, so How will I know what I write is natural or not?? Anyway, I don't mean anything, but I just want to know why for my further writings!

Thanks!

 

[5jj]

If you say 'the door had been stuck', it is possible that this is a situation that was true before the speaker tried to open it, but the door was no longer stuck at the time of the opening.

 

[emsr2d2]

The door had been stuck on Tuesday, but by Wednesday it wasn't stuck anymore and on Thursday I broke the door accidentally when I tried to open it.

I'm sure you can see that that is an unlikely situation. It is more likely that:

The door was stuck on Wednesday when I tried to open it and it broke in the opening process. We don't know when it had become stuck.

 

[saloom2]

In a nutshell, Past participle is used before a whole occasion , but not at the time of it, isn't it?

 

[5jj]

In a nutshell, Past participle is used before a whole occasion , but not at the time of it, isn't it?

Not necessarily. Context is vital.