In those years my English was quite basic. I abandoned an adventure in a mine in front of an elevator door because open and every other verb I could think about didn't work. Very frustrating but I lived on and forgot about it. A few years ago I found a walkthrough on some retrogames site. I checked that location and... slide!
It was basically guess the verb. And also not obvious when you're talking to a human through the exact same interface.
It's a menu system but harder to use.