"Doing Something To" Applying to the Second Noun

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1

Hello! I have several places where I’d like to make interactions with a thing more/less likely, or intervene before an object is interacted with, but I’m having a hard time figuring out how. The phrases “Instead of doing something to…” and “Does the player mean doing something to…” only affect one-noun verbs or the first noun of two-noun verbs, and the one page I’ve found about “doing something to” doesn’t seem to mention how to stop the player from using an object as the second noun. So even if I say “Does the player mean doing something to the obvious door: it is very likely.” something like this still happens:

put bread on door
Which do you mean, the obvious door or the hidden door?"

The same is true for instead statements and the like. What I really want is something like “Instead of doing something to something with the obvious door”

Thanks for any help!

2

You can do something like this, generally you want to be as specific as you can be while getting the desired results

does the player mean putting something on the red table:
	it is likely.

or, more specifically

does the player mean putting the bread on the red table:
	it is likely.

less specifically:

does the player mean doing something when the second noun is the red table:
	it is likely.

still less specifically:

does the player mean doing something when the current action involves the red table:
	it is likely.

The last two options can lead to weird outcomes, so use with care (“involves” is still a neat verb since it checks both first and second noun)

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3

The last two options seem like exactly what I need, but I’ll look out for weird outcomes. Thanks so much!

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