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Accidents will happen



 
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Accidents will happen #1 (permalink) Tue May 10, 2005 22:32 pm   Accidents will happen
 

Test No. express/elem-1 "Adding Up", question 10

I know you are very sorry that you broke the pot but accidents will happen.

(a) things will take place
(b) things do occur
(c) things take place often
(d) things often go wrong

Test No. express/elem-1 "Adding Up", answer 10

I know you are very sorry that you broke the pot but things do occur.

Correct answer: (b) things do occur

Your answer was: incorrect
I know you are very sorry that you broke the pot but things often go wrong.
_________________________

Why is "things do occur" correct but "things often go wrong" is wrong. Is it because of the presence of "often" ?
Abecedarian
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Joined: 25 Apr 2005
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Not positive #2 (permalink) Thu May 12, 2005 10:31 am   Not positive
 

You have to be a pessimist to say that things often go wrong.....????
Rich7
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Accidents will happen #3 (permalink) Thu May 12, 2005 10:34 am   Accidents will happen
 

Accidents will happen and things do occur both are idiomatic phrases which basically mean that sometimes things go wrong.

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Torsten
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Torsten Daerr

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Accidents will happen #4 (permalink) Thu May 12, 2005 15:54 pm   Accidents will happen
 

Torsten wrote:
Accidents will happen and things do occur both are idiomatic phrases which basically mean that sometimes things go wrong.


Ok, thank you. so I basically need to remember that they mean the same.

As an aside, what is the difference between "happen" and "occur". Do we use "happen" when things happen unexpectedly and "occur" when an event occurs as expected?

Also in general what is the rule/accepted custom to post these lead-off questions which don't really have a connection to the original post?

Thanks again
Abecedarian
I'm new here and I like it ;-)


Joined: 25 Apr 2005
Posts: 23

Difference between happen and occur #5 (permalink) Thu May 12, 2005 16:08 pm   Difference between happen and occur
 

Dear Abecedarian,

Thanks for your interesting question, Alan has explained the difference between happen and occur here:
http://www.english-test.net/forum/ftopic1086.html

You can ask any questions simply by posting them here.

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Torsten
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Torsten Daerr

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Posts: 14492
Location: EU

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