Which one is grammatically correct?
a. The fence collapsed during a strong storm.
b. The fence was collapsed during a strong storm.
My teacher said it's b. but I'm having doubts...
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a. The fence collapsed during a strong storm.
b. The fence was collapsed during a strong storm.
My teacher said it's b. but I'm having doubts...
Both sentences are grammatical, but they have different meanings.
a means that the fence went from being upright to collapsed while the storm was in progress.
b means that the fence was in the collapsed state during the time of the storm. When the collapsing occurred relative to the the storm is not specifically stated, it might have been before the start of the storm (someone might have collapsed it to prevent it from blowing away).
A variation of b would restore the implication that the collapse occurred during the storm:
The fence was collapsed by the wind during a storm.
Adding an agent that caused the collapse makes it refer to a specific event, rather than a state of being. This is just a rearrangement of
The wind collapsed the fence during the storm.
from the active to the passive voice.
In practice, collapse is not usually used transitively like this at all. It would be more common to use knocked down for this, as in
The wind knocked down the fence during the storm.
knocked down also tends to refer to a specific event rather than an ongoing state, so
The fence was knocked down during the storm.
means that it fell while the storm was ongoing, but doesn't specifically name the agent that caused it.