happen

[jiang]

Dear teachers,

I have three questions to ask:

No.1
Could you please explain if the following sentences bear the same meaning?

a. It happenened there was no one in the house.
b. No one happened to be in the house.

No.2
Could you please kindly explain the difference between 'fight' and 'battle'? I think the former can refer to children's actions when they hit each other. The latter relates to war. For example, in the battle the enemy was defeated. Is that right?

No.3
Do I say 'The enemy withdrew' or 'the enemies withdrew'? Is there any difference between sigular and plaural form as far as meaning is concerned here?


Looking forward to hearing from you.
Thank you in advance.

Jiang

[Naamplao]

Dear teachers,

I have three questions to ask:

No.1
Could you please explain if the following sentences bear the same meaning?

a. It happenened there was no one in the house. (this is old fashioned writing)
b. No one happened to be in the house.

There is no real difference in meaning other than what I noted above.

No.2
Could you please kindly explain the difference between 'fight' and 'battle'? I think the former can refer to children's actions when they hit each other. The latter relates to war. For example, in the battle the enemy was defeated. Is that right?

A battle can be a series of fights in a military sense. A fight can be a single event, however it can be ongoing too.

He had to battle to overcome his cancer.
He had to fight to overcome his cancer.

To me a "battle" is a more difficult "fight". As far as "fight" being limited to children, this is not true.

No.3
Do I say 'The enemy withdrew' or 'the enemies withdrew'? Is there any difference between sigular and plaural form as far as meaning is concerned here?

The enemy withdrew (There is only one type of enemy)
the enemies withdrew (there were more than one type of enemy)

Looking forward to hearing from you.
Thank you in advance.

Jiang

....

[Ronjohn]

I don't want to go into too much of the reply to these questions as it would take a long time but I must point out the battle/fight question and the examples given to explain the difference. The question related to the meanings of the nouns in question, however the examples were of verbs in the infinitive. A noun and a verb are worlds apart in grammatical phraseology without mixing up the meanings of them!

My advice to the enquirer is to go onto a dictionary website and simply look up the meanings. A pointer though about the general contrast of the two words. These words mean different things to different people. What might be a fight to keep the weight off, might also be a battle with the bulge!!!!! Hopefully you will take my point.

[RonBee]

Say:

It happened that there was no one in the house.

[jiang]

Dear Naamplao,

Thank you very much for your explanation. Now I see.

Have a nice weekend.

Jiang

....

[jiang]

&
Dear RonBee,

Haven't heard from you for a long time. Welcome back!
I have two answers. What should I do?

Jiang

Say:

It happened that there was no one in the house.

[jiang]

Dear Ronjohn,

Thank you very much for your explanation. Now I see.

Jiang

I don't want to go into too much of the reply to these questions as it would take a long time but I must point out the battle/fight question and the examples given to explain the difference. The question related to the meanings of the nouns in question, however the examples were of verbs in the infinitive. A noun and a verb are worlds apart in grammatical phraseology without mixing up the meanings of them!

My advice to the enquirer is to go onto a dictionary website and simply look up the meanings. A pointer though about the general contrast of the two words. These words mean different things to different people. What might be a fight to keep the weight off, might also be a battle with the bulge!!!!! Hopefully you will take my point.

[RonBee]

&
Dear RonBee,

Haven't heard from you for a long time. Welcome back!
I have two answers. What should I do?

Jiang

When Naamplao looks at the original sentence a second time he will realize that the that isn't there.

Why wasn't there anybody in the house? Had they all gone out?

[jiang]

&
Dear RonBee,

Do you mean if there is 'that' then it will be correct? But 'that' can be omitted. Is that right? And could you please kindly explain why the second sentence is incorrect?
I don't know why no one was in the room.

Jiang

When Naamplao looks at the original sentence a second time he will realize that the that isn't there.

Why wasn't there anybody in the house? Had they all gone out?

[RonBee]

a. It happenened that there was no one in the house.
b. No one happened to be in the house.

The first sentence is ungrammatical without that. (The reason for that doesn't occur to me right now.)

Both sentences are acceptable but a little odd. More likely:

There was no one in the house.

~R