Talk:happen

"What did it happen"?

Why "What happened?" and not "What did it happen?" Is there any grammar rule for that?--Xan2 (talk) 20:27, 1 November 2014 (UTC)

I take it that you are contrasting "what happened" with other relative clauses or question clauses such as "how/where/when it happened / how/where/when did it happen".

"What" serves as the subject of the verb happen. "How/"where"/"when" are all adverbials and do not serve as subject. "It" is a normal pronoun referring to something specific that should be clear from the context that is the subject. The "rules" are that 'ONE nominal (noun, noun phrase, pronoun, nominal clause, also nouns etc that are coordinated [joined by a conjunction]) is needed as subject of happen.' and 'what#Pronoun and it#Pronoun are suitable pronouns.'. DCDuring TALK 21:00, 1 November 2014 (UTC)

Similarly, It is sure to happen that ... as in it is sure to happen that one kind of property will be sold, seems an archaic structure for happen. --Backinstadiums (talk) 16:58, 16 November 2020 (UTC)

In other terms: "do" is never used when the question word is the subject. "What" is the subject in "what happened", so you can't use "do". It's the same as "what made you sad" or "who wrote this book". --- Specifically for a Spanish speaker one could also say: "why did it happen" is like "por qué pasó esto". But "what did it happen" would be like saying "qué pasó esto", which I'm sure is equally impossible. 90.186.83.227 00:53, 3 April 2024 (UTC)

Something is "not happening"

If a thing is out of the question, we may say "that's not happening" (i.e. that's not going to happen). This seems to be a modern set phrase, not encountered prior to a couple of decades ago. Equinox ◑ 20:02, 9 August 2021 (UTC)

1. [It + ~ + (that) clause] to come to pass by chance ; 2. to be, come, go, etc., casually or by chance.

[It + ~ + (that) clause] to come to pass by chance: It just happened that a policeman was nearby. 2. : My friend happened along. --Backinstadiums (talk) 17:05, 16 August 2021 (UTC)

RFC discussion: May 2018–December 2021

The following discussion has been moved from Wiktionary:Requests for cleanup (permalink).

This discussion is no longer live and is left here as an archive. Please do not modify this conversation, but feel free to discuss its conclusions.

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happen

Sense 2, "To occur unexpectedly, by chance or with a low probability." The usex "Do you happen to have an umbrella?" doesn't fit in here; it doesn't mean "Do you occur to have an umbrella?". I'm not sure how best to phrase the definition (which is why I'm asking here), but I have a feeling that happen is modal here, as the sentence really just means "Do you by any chance have an umbrella?". —Mahāgaja (formerly Angr) · talk 13:04, 7 May 2018 (UTC)

Using the verb "chance" might work; it is at least substitutable ("do you chance to have an umbrella"). Otherwise, the definition could be made non-gloss, along the lines you mention; like {{n-g|Functions like a modal verb indicating chance.}} or something. One other dictionary uses "have the fortune of". - -sche (discuss) 14:10, 18 May 2018 (UTC)

RFC-resolved in diff. --Fytcha (talk) 17:22, 13 December 2021 (UTC)

happen to Semi-auxiliaries or Marginal modal auxiliary

The verb is not used in the progressive aspect. So:

   *I was happening to speak to Mary

and the negative is questionable at best:

❔She didn't happen to meet him

https://www.eltconcourse.com/training/inservice/modality/semimodals.html#2 JMGN (talk) 21:48, 19 August 2023 (UTC)