What happened to your car? There’s a dent on the trunk. I would be so sad if anything bad happened to her. Read the examples below to illustrate this use. We create other meanings when we add other words to “happen.” If something “happens to” someone or something, then that something has an effect on that person or thing. He happens to like driving, so he won’t mind taking me. See the examples below to understand this.
It can also suggest an element of chance, as in something occurring by coincidence or accidentally ( source). Ī funny thing happened on my way to work this morning.Īccidents often happen on this busy road. There is a scratch on my car, but I’m not sure how it happened. In its most common usage, it means to “have existence” or to “take place,” as in the following examples: The meaning of “happen” has not fundamentally changed over the years, but there are various nuances in its definition. The word “ happenen” assimilated into Middle English in the late 14th century and meant “to come to pass or occur.” The word “hap” was more common at first, but it became “happen” in late Middle English ( source). We’ll also consider other intransitive verbs and how verbs behave when they only have an active form. Let’s examine where the word “happen” originated as well as how to use it in all tenses. When asking what has occurred in the past, we say, “What happened?” If we were to ask what will occur in the future, we would say, “What will happen?” And if we wanted to know what is occurring at the present moment, then we’d ask, “What is happening?” It is never proper grammar to say “What happen?” It is an active, intransitive verb, and knowing how to use it in all its tenses is important for fluency. “Happen” is a regular, much-used verb that most English students will discover early in their language journey.
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