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Imagine someone is going to open a locked door by using force. You see that the guy is slamming into the door and you want to prevent him from doing that and tell him that there is a way to every task. If I were the speaker, I probably would say one of the sentences below:

  • Everything has its own procedure.

  • Everything has its own way.

  • There is a way to everything.

Do they sound idiomatic and natural?

Meanwhile, if there is a better way to say it, I would appreciate if you let me know about it.

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  • 2
    You mean "locked"?
    – zx8754
    Feb 8, 2017 at 10:23
  • "You just need the right touch." But this is sometimes inflammatory and might be seen (or used) as a challenge at times, depending on the tone of voice.
    – Teacher KSHuang
    Feb 8, 2017 at 11:09
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    I cannot figure out how he is slamming a locked door. :) We can slam into a locked door, but we can slam only an open door. To slam a door is to propel an open door with great force towards the door jamb. It is a way of closing the door forcefully.
    – TimR
    Feb 8, 2017 at 15:27
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    Sorry, I am new here, not sure about the rules yet. This is how it works at StackOverflow. Once you edit, ping me, I would delete my comments. Also, I think users with enough rep, would just edit out this kind of minor typos without approval.
    – zx8754
    Feb 8, 2017 at 21:40
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    @A-friend: I appreciate your scruples in not wanting to correct it silently. :)
    – TimR
    Feb 9, 2017 at 11:15

1 Answer 1

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Well, they are technically correct but none of them sound natural to me.

I would use something like

  • There is a way of doing things (prepositional phrase, of being the preposition and "doing things" being the object of the preposition)
  • Certain actions have a process
  • Each situation has an optimal procedure
  • There is a correct way of doing things
  • There are ways to do things and that is not one of them....

In the quoted examples:

Everything has it’s own procedure. Everything has it’s own way. There is a way to everything.

The 3rd one is probably the best. In the first 2, "everything" is being used as a pronoun. This personalizes "everything" like saying "the mechanic has his own way of doing things", however, "everything" is general and not specific so saying "everything has a way" or "everything has an opinion" doesn't read well. Also "it's own way" is not very descriptive either, own way of what? Own way of showing things, own way of displaying things or own way of doing things?

So I would probably use something like "there is a way of doing things" and leave it there.

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