But I don’t think it was so hard.

[tulipflower]

[FONT=&quot][/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]Can we say in option (c) the utterances '[FONT=&quot] It’s strange….. ' and 'But I don’t think it was so hard.'[/FONT] show that the speaker does not want to accept the responsibility for breaking the vacuum cleaner. [FONT=&quot]
[/FONT]
You rent a room in a large house. The landlord lives in the house as well. Each person in the house is responsible for a few hours of chores every week. Your chore is to vacuum the house. This morning when you were using the landlord’s vacuum you accidentally dropped it and now it does not work. You are now in the living room and the landlord walks in. [/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]a) [/FONT][FONT=&quot]I just wrecked your vacuum cleaner. What should I do?[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]b) [/FONT][FONT=&quot]I’m sorry, but I accidentally broke your vacuum cleaner. I was using it this morning and I dropped it and now it doesn’t work. Do you know where I can get it repaired?[/FONT]
c) [FONT=&quot]It’s strange the vacuum cleaner suddenly stopped working, after I dropped it just now. But I don’t think it was so hard.[/FONT]

 

[jutfrank]

It doesn't make much sense to me.

 

[tulipflower]

It doesn't make much sense to me.

I want to explain why 'c' is not the most natural option.

 

[emsr2d2]

The first part of c is understandable. I have no idea what you mean by "But I don't think it was so hard". Did you mean something like "The hoover stopped working after I dropped it just now. It's strange - I didn't think I'd dropped it hard enough to break it"?

I would say that, in this situation, any sentence that doesn't start with "I'm sorry" is probably a poor choice!

 

[tulipflower]

The first part of c is understandable. I have no idea what you mean by "But I don't think it was so hard". Did you mean something like "The hoover stopped working after I dropped it just now. It's strange - I didn't think I'd dropped it hard enough to break it"?

I would say that, in this situation, any sentence that doesn't start with "I'm sorry" is probably a poor choice!

I think it meant 'I didn't think I'd dropped it hard enough to break it"?'

The test is by Hudson, Detmur and Brown (1995).