How to use HAPPEN: Advanced English Vocabulary Lesson

317,432 views ・ 2019-05-24

Speak English With Vanessa


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Hi.
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I'm Vanessa from SpeakEnglishWithVanessa.com.
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What in the world happened?
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Let's talk about it.
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Are you ready to take your English from regular boring English to fun party English?
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Okay, maybe not party English, but at least real, natural English.
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Well, there is one advanced word that I'd like to share with you.
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It's the word happen.
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Today, we're going to be talking about a basic way to use happen, and then an advanced way
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to use happen.
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So I hope you'll be able to integrate it into your vocabulary and sound like a natural native
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speaker.
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Let's start with the basic version of happen.
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It's simply something that occurred.
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If your coworker walks into the office in mud, you might say, "What happened?"
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This is a casual conversational way to say what occurred.
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Occurred is way too formal for daily conversation, so the word happen is perfect.
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Your coworker might say, "Oh, it all happened so fast.
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I tripped on the sidewalk.
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I don't remember all of the details.
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I don't remember exactly what happened."
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Let's take a look at three specific situations when we often use the word happen to talk
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about something that occurred.
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Lets think about the situation that your friend just got engaged to be married.
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How can we use happen to talk about this?
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You might ask, "When did you get engaged?"
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And she could say, "It happened on Saturday."
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This is talking about a day or a time.
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If your friend starts crying because she's so excited about her engagement, you might
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say, "Oh, I'm so sorry.
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Are you okay?"
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And she could say, "Don't worry.
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It happens all the time."
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Again, we're talking about a time or a day.
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All the time, when does it happen?
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All the time.
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I guess she cries a lot.
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You can see in these two sentences that happen or if we talk about it in the past, happened
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is simply the verb of the sentence.
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It happened on Saturday.
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It happens all the time.
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When your friend tells you that she got engaged to the man of her dreams, she might say, "I
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can't believe this is really happening."
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We often use happen to talk about when you're questioning reality.
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I can't believe this is really happening, or maybe for you, maybe you're in love with
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the man who just asked your friend to marry him.
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So you might say, "Oh no.
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This can't be happening."
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You're questioning reality.
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Oh no, this can't be happening.
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When your friend first tells you that she got engaged, she runs up to you and says,
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"You'll never guess what happened."
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We often use happened for unknown situations, especially with the word what.
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You'll never guess what happened.
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Let's see a couple other examples with this.
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When you feel sad inside because she just got engaged to the man you love, you think,
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"We'll just see what happens."
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Maybe you think that they won't actually get married, or maybe something will happen.
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So you're kind of thinking about an unknown thing that might happen in the future.
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We'll just see what happens.
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And then before their wedding, if that man falls in love with you and your friend says,
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"What happened?"
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You might say, "I don't know what happened."
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You can see in all of these situations we're using what happened to talk about something
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unknown.
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This is the basic way to use happen as something that simply occurred.
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But what if we want to take it up to the next level and use it in the advanced way?
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The advanced way to use happen or happened is in situations where there is a coincidence.
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Two things that happen at the same time by accident.
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Something that happens by chance.
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You didn't plan this.
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My friend used this last week because I went over to her house for dinner, and before I
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went over, I asked, "Is there anything I can bring?
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Maybe some drinks, a dessert, a side dish," something to help her with the dinner.
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And so I brought some beer to her house, and when I got there, her husband said, "Well,
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I happened to by the same beer."
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He had the same beer in his hand that I had brought.
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He used happened to buy the same beer because he's talking about something that was an accident.
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We didn't plan to buy the same beer.
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It was a coincidence.
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Two things happened at the same time.
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I brought the same beer, he brought the same beer.
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So he used happened to buy the same beer.
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Did you notice the sentence structure?
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Happen to plus the infinitive.
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Let's look at a couple other examples.
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If you happen to see Vanessa, tell her I said hi.
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This means you're not planning on seeing me, but if you pass on the street or if you see
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each other at work, okay, tell her that I said hi if you happen to see her.
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Notice that the verb here see is not conjugated.
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That means it's the infinitive.
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Happen to see.
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I happened to be asleep when he called me.
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I didn't plan on being asleep when he called.
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This is something that was a coincidence.
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Two things happened at the same time by accident.
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I was asleep and he called.
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I happened to be asleep.
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The verb here be is unconjugated.
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The teacher happened to give us a quiz on the day that I was absent.
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I didn't plan on being absent on the day of the quiz, so this was just a coincidence,
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an accident.
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Here we have the verbs happened to give.
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Give is not conjugated.
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It's the infinitive.
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The teacher happened to give us a quiz.
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The verb happen is conjugated in the past because this is something that happened in
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the past, not now, not in the future but it happened in the past.
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It occurred in the past.
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So make sure that that second verb is the one that's not conjugated.
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She happened to give a quiz.
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The front door of my apartment is pretty heavy.
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So whenever we leave, I always tell my toddler, my son to stay close to me.
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I tell him, "If someone happens to open the door when we're right here, it will hurt really
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bad.
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So make sure that you stay with me so that someone doesn't hit us with the door."
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If someone opened the door and hit us, it would be by accident.
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It wouldn't be on purpose.
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It would just be a coincidence.
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So I want to kind of warn him to stay close to me.
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Be careful of the door.
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It could open because someone might be coming through.
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So make sure that if someone happened to open the door, you are close to me.
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Before we go, I want to give you a little quiz.
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Can you use the correct version of happen?
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Make sure that you conjugate the word happen correctly.
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Is it happen, happens, happened, or is it happen to, happened to?
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Look at the full sentence and think, is it talking about something that is occurring
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or is it talking about something that's a coincidence, by accident?
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What's the verb tense that should be used?
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Let's start with the first sentence.
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You'll never guess what... yesterday.
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You'll never guess what happened yesterday.
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I was browsing in the local bookstore, and I... see Tom Cruise.
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I was browsing in the local bookstore, and I happened to see Tom Cruise.
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I couldn't believe it.
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I thought, "Is this really..."
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I couldn't believe it.
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I thought, "Is this really happening?"
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As I was walking by, he... turn towards me and smile.
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As I was walking by, he happened to turn towards me and smile.
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Immediately my face went red, and he said, "Oh, don't worry.
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It... all the time."
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It happens all the time.
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How did you do?
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Let's read the full story so that you can see all of those sentences in the correct
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way.
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You'll never guess what happened yesterday.
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I was browsing in the local bookstore, and I happened to see Tom Cruise.
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I couldn't believe it.
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I thought, "Is this really happening?"
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As I walked by, he happened to turn towards me and smile.
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Immediately my face went red, and he said, "Oh, don't worry.
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That happens all the time."
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And now I have a question for you.
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Let me know in the comments what is something that happened to happen to you.
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Yes, we are using both versions of happen here.
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It means what is something that occurred to you by accident without a plan.
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You might say, "I happened to see Tom Cruise at the bookstore."
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This happened by accident.
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It was something that occurred to you by accident.
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Let me know in the comments and try to use the word happen so that you can advance and
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expand your vocabulary.
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Thank you so much for learning English with me, and I'll see you again next Friday for
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a new lesson here on my YouTube channel.
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Bye.
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The next step is to download my free eBook, Five Steps to Becoming a Confident English
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Speaker.
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You'll learn what you need to do to speak confidently and fluently.
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Don't forget to subscribe to my YouTube channel for more free lessons.
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Thanks so much.
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Bye.
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