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Sage Lee Posted 13 years ago
Grammar
a bare infinitive - "I had the same thing happen to me."
"I had the same thing happen to me."
I am confused about this sentence because happen is ‘a bare infinitive’, not "to happen" or "happened / had happened". (actually "had happened" cannot be there because it's not a clause.)
I know when "have" means "to cause or allow (someone to do something)", ‘a bare infinitive’ would follow.
For example,
My wife had me clean the house. = My wife made me clean the house.
And.. with the same logic,
I had the same thing happen to me. = I made the same thing happen to me.
But the thing is, it looks weird, because the teller didn't mean to make it happen. It just happened without teller’s intention! (Or.. did it???)
Please help me! How could “happen” be a bare infinitive?
I am confused about this sentence because happen is ‘a bare infinitive’, not "to happen" or "happened / had happened". (actually "had happened" cannot be there because it's not a clause.)
I know when "have" means "to cause or allow (someone to do something)", ‘a bare infinitive’ would follow.
For example,
My wife had me clean the house. = My wife made me clean the house.
And.. with the same logic,
I had the same thing happen to me. = I made the same thing happen to me.
But the thing is, it looks weird, because the teller didn't mean to make it happen. It just happened without teller’s intention! (Or.. did it???)
Please help me! How could “happen” be a bare infinitive?
Top answer
Welcome to EF, Sage Lee! Sage Lee It just happened without teller’s intention! Right.
- Welcome to EF, Sage Lee!
- Sage Lee It just happened without teller’s intention!
- Right.
- It’s just an idiomatic way of saying The same thing happened to me .
- Odd, isn’t it?
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4 Answers
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Welcome to EF, Sage Lee!
Sage LeeIt just happened without teller’s intention!Right. It’s just an idiomatic way of saying The same thing happened to me. Odd, isn’t it?
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The "causative" have is followed by the passive verb when I am causing the action, and something or someone else is doing it
I had my house painted. (I caused someone to paint my house.)
I had my car fixed.
I had my hair done up in a French twist.
In the case you have, it is used with the active voice (infinitive). I am not causing the action, but I am the benefici
I had my house painted. (I caused someone to paint my house.)
I had my car fixed.
I had my hair done up in a French twist.
In the case you have, it is used with the active voice (infinitive). I am not causing the action, but I am the benefici
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Sage LeeBut the thing is, it looks weird, because the teller didn't mean to make it happen. It just happened without teller’s intention!Yes, it's weird, but it's a different use of 'have', meaning 'experience', and the bare infinitive is used in this case as well.
Sometimes she has the strangest thoughts come to her mind.
The other day he had
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This gets me going.
People say things such as "I had this guy steal my phone cord from my car."
No. You didn't have the guy do that horrible thing. It happened to you.
What they might more correctly say is "someone stole my phone cord from my car."
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