Dave's ESL Cafe's Student Discussion Forums

[seanwu]

Dear Teacher:


Pardon me for asking this simple question.
What is the different between occur and happen ?
I had read a sentence in the textbook.
" Dose it ever occur to you that I am sometimes thinking? "
Can the occur be replaace by happen ?
And will the meaning of the sentence changes ?

Thanks!

Best Wishes.

[pugachevV]

No: occur can't be replaced by happen, here.
Occur to is a different use of the verb. It means: to enter, or come into the mind of (someone).

So your sentence means, "Does it ever enter your mind that I am sometimes thinking?

You could say, "Have you ever considered that I might sometimes be thinking?" Or, if you really want to use "happen": "Does it ever happen that you might consider the possibility that I'm thinking?" but that's a bit unwieldy.

[seanwu]

Thank you !

That really helps me a lot.

Have a nice day!