After a few attempts to completing the letter...

Hello

Please see below. Which one is correct?

[i][b]1-After a few attempts to completing the letter, he finally gave up.

2-After a few attempts to complete the letter, he finally gave up.[/b][/i]

Tom

Hi Tom,

I don’t really like the first of these two constructions, in fact it’s wrong:

The usual preposition after attempt as a noun would be at:

After a few attempts at completing …

The second one is acceptable since the preposition after the verb attempt would be to: attempt to do something but I’m not really happy with that and I would say:

After making a few attempts to complete … or
Having attempted to complete the letter a few times he …

Alan