hi there,
what does "happens" do to the sense of a sentence when I find sentences like " Do you happen to know what "hola" means? " OR " it happens to be (and so on)" ? thanks for your replies 🙇

See a translation

English (US)

"do you happen to know" - no one else I've talked to knows so I'm coming to you now and I'm wondering if you're the person that does Know the answer because everyone else I have talked to does not know the answer

peruvianricardo

Spanish (Mexico)

hi, thanks my friend. well, I've read this expression like twice, from the book "Matilda" yesterday. So I'm trying to figure out it's uses

peruvianricardo

Spanish (Mexico)

I'm getting lost trying to find some over the pages but you can find some other expressions like " as though" on the book, too. I think those are old ones, my friend

OldGeezer

English (US)
English (UK)

Do you happen to know what "hola" means?
It happens to be (and so on).

In these two sentences, "happen" (verb) are true or may be true, but they aren't known to everyone - they are not "universal truths".

Do you happen to know what "hola" means?
In this sentence, "happen" implies "you're not Spanish, so I don't expect you to know; but you are really clever, so maybe you know".
In other words, "happen" means by chance, maybe, possibly.

It happens to be (and so on).
In this sentence, "happens" means "indeed" or "really", but with the added meaning of "you probably don't know this". It is often a little bit angry or annoyed. For example, if you called me "young man", and I said:
"Why are you calling me young man? I happen to be 62 years old."

Highly-rated answerer

nixxtixx

English (US)

saying "do you happen to know" is more of a formal speech whenever I've used it that's how I use it with people and they use it with me. speech is sometimes different based off which state you're in I am from North Carolina so that maybe why but from the example you provided "do you happen to know what hola means" could also be said "do you know what hola means?" the reason why you would use the word happen would be to sound more formal or my example above

nixxtixx

English (US)

@peruvianricardo "it happens to be" is kind of like saying it's shocking in a sense "this happens to be the answer" or "it happens to be sunny outside" I also didn't fully understand the second thing you said. Matilda is a good book I don't like to read that much but it's a classic movie hopefully someone else will reply and hopefully help you out english is the only language I currently know so I may just not be explaining it the best way.

peruvianricardo

Spanish (Mexico)

wow thanks a lot my friends 🙇 thanks to you I can get to it's real meaning. I didn't expect it was kind of offensive, saying it directly in a sentence. I do really appreciate it my friends. I'll keep on studying ☺👊 hope to help you with spanish too