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The officer walks down the hallway. He notices that one of the doors is ajar. He pushes it open silently. And enters.

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Is the part in bold okay? Would you phrase it differently?

I'm asking because pushes sounds forceful to me but maybe adding silently makes it okay?

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  • The only possible issue I see is and enters as a sentence on its own. As a short sentence, I think it would sound better as he enters, which matches the previous sentences. Otherwise, add it to the sentence before. As for the original question, it could also be he silently pushes it open, which is an order I think is slightly more natural. (But the use of silently itself, in whichever position, is fine.)
    – Jason Bassford
    Commented Jul 1, 2020 at 14:17
  • You might also consider noiselessly instead of silently to emphasise the door made no noise as opposed to the officer making no sound. But is it fine as it is and I would not be unhappy with And enters as a sentence. Short sentences crank up the suspense.
    – mdewey
    Commented Jul 1, 2020 at 14:36
  • He nudges the door open silently.
    – Lambie
    Commented Sep 14, 2021 at 14:43

3 Answers 3

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I'm asking because pushes sounds forceful to me

Not always! You can gently push the door to open it, especially the one which is already slightly open.

The officer walks down the hallway, notices that one of the doors is ajar, gently pushes it (open), and enters.

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While it is correct, you can improve the flow by re-arranging the words and removing "pushes" all together. Try:

The officer walks down the hallway. He notices that one of the doors is ajar. Silently, he opens it and enters.

Since you already said that the door is ajar, there's also no reason to mention that he opens it at all.

The officer walks down the hallway. He notices that one of the doors is ajar and silently enters it.

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If you're concerned about word choice, you can change the word. "He noiselessly nudges the door open. And enters."

As others have said though, "pushes" is not really forceful in this context. It definitely can be, you can push someone (though I'd use 'shove' to be forceful).

In general though I find "push" to be a fairly neutral word. If you want to push gently, you have "nudge open the door", "eased open the door". If you want to open quickly, or forcefully, you can "slam open the door", or "violently open the door".

So as a TL;DR: "push" is neutral. The part in bold is just fine.

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