1

Please imagine two intimate friends who have been close growing up, have been working together for a long time. One of them passes away in a car accident. The other one hangs up his hat and sits at home and loses his enthusiasm to continue that work. One of his wife's close friends who is not posted about all the story asks her "If you don't mind why he is not working anymore"? The wife replies:

  • The loss of his friend made him lose his will to continue working.

  • With the loss of his friend he became disheartened to continue working.

Which one of the following sentences is more probable to be said by a native speaker? For me, they both sound quite natural, but I need a native speaker's confirmation.

As far as I know the first one seems to be better, but why the second one doesn't sound natural to the native speakers' era?

[My AmE native speakers told me.]

Improve this question
2
  • We can be disheartened to be|see|find|learn .... but not disheartened to continue... However, if you add too, it will work: ... too disheartened to continue...
    – TimR
    Commented Feb 1, 2017 at 15:12
  • Compare this ungrammatical statement: He was distrustful to sign the contract. which becomes grammatical with too: He was too distrustful to sign the contract. And this one: He was disoriented to think. and He was too disoriented to think.
    – TimR
    Commented Feb 1, 2017 at 15:19

1 Answer 1

Reset to default
2

The first.

The loss of his friend made him lose his will to continue working.

You could also say:

Due to the loss of his friend, he's lost his will to work.

Improve this answer
1
  • Could you possibly explain me why the "disheartened" sentence doesn't sound idiomatic here? What's wrong with it @Curtis White?
    – A-friend
    Commented Feb 1, 2017 at 15:06

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .