happen to be

[janausrissen]

Hi all,

I am delighted have been founding this forum. Hopefully anyone could help me with this issue. I am wondering when to use "...happen to be..."
E.g In "Harry Potter and the prisoner of A." one can read:
"<...> And Harry was happened to be a wizard."
Why does Mrs Rowling use this expression here instead of just writing
"<...> And Harry was a wizard."

Does anyone know?

thanks a bunch
Jan

[Barb_D]

Hi Jan,
Are you sure it said "And Harry was happened to be..." I think that may be an error.

In any case, we say "He happened to be" to show what a happy coincidence it is that something that is needed is already there.

A: I need a pen.
B: I happen to have a pen right here. You are more than welcome to use it.

A: Oh no! I need to get to the airport and my car has a flat tire.
B: Oh, I happen to have a friend with a flight this afternoon. Let me call him and see if he can give you a ride.

[janausrissen]

Hi Barb,

brilliant! Thanks for clarifying this. Of course you are right, its an error.
(As well as "...I am delighted founding this forum... )

Its "<...> And Harry happened to be a wizard."
Thank you very much for your kind help.

Jan

[Barb_D]

I'm happy you happened to have found us in time for your question!

[janausrissen]

:) Unfortunately I wasnt happen to find you sooner.

Jan

[The Dude]

Watch out for confusion when you come across the wrong application of this expression, used so often by native English speakers that you might think it to be correct:

"I like that painting very much. What do you think of it?"
"I happen to think it's awful"

In this case, "I think it's awful" would be quite sufficient. Inserting 'happen to' is what I would call pompous verbosity. The speaker thinks it sounds more important when in fact it is a useless addition.

Use this expression only as Barb_D has instructed!

[birdeen's call]

But note that it doesn't mean that "I happen to think" is always wrong:

"Everybody knows Tom is not worthy of other people's attention."
"Actually, I happen to think he is more worthy of my attention than you are."

"Happen" is used to contrast "everybody".

[The Dude]

The Prince of Wales, during an interview some years ago, came out with 'I happen to believe...' and was quite rightly, if politely, ridiculed for it. The poor chap was only showing his disagreement with an earlier opinion, but it was nonetheless understood, although perhaps only by native English speakers, to be a pompous verbosity with no useful purpose. I can't think of any occasion when 'happen to' is reasonable other than that explained by Barb_D.

I agree that in your example, as in mine, this expression is being used to make a contrast with a previous statement. However that does not make it right. It is still fatuous and still makes an Englishman wince. Better to keep it in its rightful place.

Then again, perhaps I'm just a grumpy old man...

[birdeen's call]

Thanks for this, The Dude. I would never have thought there's anything wrong with the usage similar to my example. I'm not sure if I understand one thing though. You say:

agree that in your example, as in mine, this expression is being used to make a contrast with a previous statement.

When I read your example, I thought, "It's obviously wrong, because there's no reason to use 'happen' here." I didn't see any contrast there--not a trace of justification for using the word "happen". You say there is some kind of contrast there. What things are contrasted?

In my example, I wanted "happen" to be slightly ironic. (That's how I always understood this usage.)

The literal meaning: Most people surely think the way you do, so you were almost right in saying that "everybody thinks so". It's just a coincidence that a person like me, who thinks otherwise, is (happens to be) your interlocutor. This is a very unlikely event.

The intended meaning: Of course it's not a coincidence. You're just plain wrong, you bastard.

If the second person just said, "Actually, I think...", this irony would be lost.

Do you agree that this is present in my example and isn't is yours? Or is the difference just my imagination?

[The Dude]

Well, if in your example 'happen' is a contrast to 'Everybody', then in mine it's a contrast to 'I' (of the first statement). The actual contrast is that one likes the picture but the other definitely does not. Just as 'Everybody' knows this, but 'I' strongly disagree.

But this is not really my point. What I want to make clear is that to the ear of an educated English person, this expression sounds fatuous. Bear in mind that we are discussing everyday oral English here, rather than strict grammatical rules. Grammatically, 'I happen to think' may be correct, but you will be mocked if you use it, albeit behind your back.

I see your wish to be ironic, but if I were your listener I would come back at you with 'Oh, you happen to think so, do you?' spoken with a very affected accent and maybe swivelling around on my toes, flapping my right hand! Thereby dishing the irony right back at you.

It's tricky discussing spoken English in writing because one can't show the oral inflections that make such a difference. In both our examples, and indeed in any other such use of this expression, a strong emphasis on 'I' would suffice. The speaker in your example could also emphasize 'he' and 'you' to achieve the greatest effect and leave the listener lying in the gutter.

Apologies are in order - to my horror I noticed I'd written 'What do you think it?' in my first response. Now corrected and my wrist slapped.