happen
See also: Happen
English
[edit]Etymology
[edit]From Middle English happenen, hapnen, augmented from Middle English happen (“to come to pass, happen”), perhaps from Old English hæppan (“to move accidentally, slip”) and/or from Old Norse *happa, *heppa, from Proto-Germanic *hampijaną (“to fit in, be fitting”). Equivalent to hap (“a chance, occurrence, byfall”) + -en (verbal suffix).
Pronunciation
[edit]Verb
[edit]happen (third-person singular simple present happens, present participle happening, simple past and past participle happened)
- (intransitive) To occur or take place.
- Synonyms: come to pass; see also Thesaurus:happen
- Let me tell you how it happened.
- 2013 June 28, Joris Luyendijk, “Our banks are out of control”, in The Guardian Weekly, volume 189, number 3, page 21:
- Seeing the British establishment struggle with the financial sector is like watching an alcoholic who still resists the idea that something drastic needs to happen for him to turn his life around.
- (transitive, archaic) To happen to; to befall.
- 1863, Sheridan Le Fanu, The House by the Churchyard:
- 'By my soul! I believe something bad has happened me,' he muttered, and popped up his window, and looked out, half dreaming over the church-yard on the park beyond […]
- (intransitive or impersonal, with infinitive) To do or occur by chance or unexpectedly.
- Take an umbrella in case it happens to rain.
- Do you happen to have an umbrella?
- If you should (happen to) need any help, I'll be there.
- It happened that a police car was passing my house just at that moment.
- (followed by on or upon) To encounter by chance.
- 1860, Nathaniel Hawthorne, chapter 30, in The Marble Faun:
- Unexpectedly, in a nook close by the farmhouse, he happened upon a spot where the vintage had actually commenced.
- (informal) To become popular or trendy.
Usage notes
[edit]- In the sense which indicates a chance occurrence, happen is a catenative verb that takes the to-infinitive. See Appendix:English catenative verbs
Derived terms
[edit]- accidents will happen
- accidents will happen in the best regulated families
- accident waiting to happen
- as it happens
- behappen
- couldn't happen to a nicer
- disaster waiting to happen
- happenable
- happen across
- happen along
- happen by
- happenchance
- happener
- happeningly
- happen on
- happen upon
- if it happens, it happens
- it so happens
- make fetch happen
- make happen
- mappen
- mishappen
- or it didn't happen
- pics or it didn't happen
- pictures or it didn't happen
- rehappen
- shit happens
- these things happen
- unhappen
- waiting to happen
- what's happening
- worse things happen at sea
Related terms
[edit]Translations
[edit]
|
to occur by chance, unexpectedly
|
Adverb
[edit]happen (not comparable)
- (obsolete or dialect) maybe, perhaps.
- 2016, Sally Wainwright, Happy Valley, spoken by Catherine Cawood (Sarah Lancashire), Manchester: Red Production Company; distributed by BBC Studios, published 2016:
- Yeah, well happen if he'd gone quietly, she wouldn't have needed to show him who's in charge.
Dutch
[edit]Etymology
[edit]Pronunciation
[edit]Verb
[edit]happen
- to take a bite
Conjugation
[edit]| Conjugation of happen (weak) | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| infinitive | happen | |||
| past singular | hapte | |||
| past participle | gehapt | |||
| infinitive | happen | |||
| gerund | happen n | |||
| present tense | past tense | |||
| 1st person singular | hap | hapte | ||
| 2nd person sing. (jij) | hapt, hap2 | hapte | ||
| 2nd person sing. (u) | hapt | hapte | ||
| 2nd person sing. (gij) | hapt | hapte | ||
| 3rd person singular | hapt | hapte | ||
| plural | happen | hapten | ||
| subjunctive sing.1 | happe | hapte | ||
| subjunctive plur.1 | happen | hapten | ||
| imperative sing. | hap | |||
| imperative plur.1 | hapt | |||
| participles | happend | gehapt | ||
| 1) Archaic. 2) In case of inversion. | ||||
Derived terms
[edit]Descendants
[edit]Noun
[edit]happen
Categories:
- English terms inherited from Middle English
- English terms derived from Old English
- English terms derived from the Proto-Indo-European root *kob-
- English terms derived from Proto-Indo-European
- English terms derived from Middle English
- English terms derived from Proto-Germanic
- English terms derived from Old Norse
- English terms inherited from Old English
- English terms suffixed with -en (inchoative)
- English 2-syllable words
- English terms with IPA pronunciation
- English terms with audio pronunciation
- Rhymes:English/æpən
- Rhymes:English/æpən/2 syllables
- English lemmas
- English verbs
- English intransitive verbs
- English terms with usage examples
- English terms with quotations
- English transitive verbs
- English terms with archaic senses
- English impersonal verbs
- English informal terms
- English adverbs
- English uncomparable adverbs
- English terms with obsolete senses
- English dialectal terms
- English catenative verbs
- English raising verbs
- Dutch terms suffixed with -en (denominative)
- Dutch terms with IPA pronunciation
- Dutch terms with audio pronunciation
- Rhymes:Dutch/ɑpən
- Rhymes:Dutch/ɑpən/2 syllables
- Dutch lemmas
- Dutch verbs
- Dutch weak verbs
- Dutch basic verbs
- Dutch non-lemma forms
- Dutch noun forms