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Happen

Happen means ‘occur’ and most commonly ‘occur by chance’:

  • What will happen if it rains?
  • Will someone tell me what’s happened?
  • A: You haven’t been out in ages. When did you last go to the cinema?
  • B: It just happened that we went to see that new film last night.

Happen + to-infinitive is common in polite requests or to describe something that occurs by chance:

  • You don’t happen to have any stamps, do you?
  • They just happened to be driving past so they stopped and had lunch and told us all about their holiday.

We use happen + to + object to say that something occurs unexpectedly or something occurs that we do not want:

  • Something’s happened to my bike*. The brakes keep squeaking.*
  • What’s happened to your jacket? It’s all covered in mud.