Thread: ''What happened''

Lena,

Your posts to the forum are very good.

I'm a native American English speaker and this one when I first read it made me shake my head as "what did happen" sounded so odd to my ears but then I started to think about it and I actually do say "What did happen." It is only for a very specific thing though, when I'm upset... say with my children and they are saying that one thing happened and I've heard a different version or two of the same story. I would indeed say (probably through gritted teeth), "So, what DID happen???" Or I might say "So tell me, what DID happen?" At that point, my girls better tell me the truth about what happened.

Originally Posted by rockzmom

Lena,

Your posts to the forum are very good.

I'm a native American English speaker and this one when I first read it made me shake my head as "what did happen" sounded so odd to my ears but then I started to think about it and I actually do say "What did happen." It is only for a very specific thing though, when I'm upset... say with my children and they are saying that one thing happened and I've heard a different version or two of the same story. I would indeed say (probably through gritted teeth), "So, what DID happen???" Or I might say "So tell me, what DID happen?" At that point, my girls better tell me the truth about what happened.

Thanks I know that we can use 'do' or 'did' to emphasize the meaning or stress something. For example, I do like apples, I did see him last night, etc. But ''what happened'' was playing on my mind for a long time. I was wondering why it was not used with the auxiliary verb ''did''. Thanks to this forum and people who know more than me I could get some nice and reasonable answers