Does this sound natural? (at the rink)
- I’m a miserable failure at skating. The last time I was skating at the rink, I slipped and fell head over heels. My sprained ankle was swollen badly and I had to walk with a stick for a few days after.
- I bet that was painful. But, it could have been worse. You might have torn the ligaments, falling on the ice like that.
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Corrections · 4
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The only correction I would make is to insert a comma after the word "badly".
Reason: When a sentence has two independent clauses joined by a coordinating conjunction, we put a comma before the coordinating conjunction. An independent clause has a subject and verb, and expresses a complete thought. Here are your two independent clauses: "My swollen ankle was swollen badly." "I had to walk with a few days after." The coordinating conjunction is "and". (Other coordinating conjunctions are but, for, or, nor, so, yet.)
Your phrase, "You might have torn the ligaments" is correct. Here is a definition of the word "might", along with a sample sentence taken from thefreedictionary.com:
3. (used to express an unrealized possibility): He might have been killed!
I agree with Ebony that it is perfectly correct to say, "You could have torn the ligaments, . . . "
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Does this sound natural? (at the rink)
- I’m a miserable failure at skating. The last time I was skating at the rink, I slipped and fell head over heels. My sprained ankle was swollen badly and I had to walk with a stick for a few days after.- I bet that was painful. But, it could have been worse. You could have torn the ligaments, falling on the ice like that.
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