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Qasim Zuberi
Qasim Zuberi
Both forms are grammatically correct (contrary to the insistence of some British grammar purists). The
first one (“What happened?”) is the one most of us would likely ever to need in normal life.
Use “did” when we knew something had happened but wanted more details. In other words, treat “did”
as an emphatic to express some kind or level of surprise, shock, disbelief, doubt or need for
confirmation. It’s like, if that didn't happen, what actually happened?
It’s the difference between a subject question and an object question. A subject question are those
about the subject of a sentence, and an object question, the object of a sentence. To figure out which is
which, we have to invert the question into a normal sentence.
Subject questions don't take auxiliary verbs, and the verb is in its correct tense if it were a sentence.
Object questions take auxiliaries like ‘do,’ ‘does,’ ‘did’ or similar, and the verb is in the infinitive form.
In other words, if the question word (e.g. what, who, etc) is the subject of the sentence, don't add ‘do,’
‘does’ or ‘did.’
For example, take the basic sentence “Jack wrote the essay.”
Ask yourself — who wrote the essay?
This is a subject question. Jack (‘who’) is the subject of the verb wrote. When a question is about the
subject, we use the verb in its correct tense without an auxiliary verb.
This is an object question. Although ‘Jack’ is the subject of the question itself, the object of the verb
write is actually ‘the essay’ (represented by ‘what’). When a question is about the object, we use an
auxiliary verb (‘did’) and an infinitive ("write").
“What happened?”
This is a subject question because ‘what’ (the question word) is the subject of the verb happened.
This is an object question because ‘what’ ISN’T the subject of the verb happened. In a strange way, this
kind of makes ‘what’ the object while ‘did’ is the subject of the verb happen.
The usual explanation from grammar purists is that there cannot be be a sentence without inverting the
auxiliary verb order. In other words, inverting “What did happen?” into a normal sentence doesn’t
produce a grammatically correct sentence, so the interrogative must be incorrect too.
That rule is actually meaningless in actual language operation, even if it sounds sensible enough. “Did it
rain?” doesn't have a subject in it, yet the auxiliary verb ‘did’ is invertable to form a proper sentence (“It
did rain”) as much as “It rained” is the usual correct sentence form. In short, the rule actually fits for
both sentences.
Below are object questions. — The verb and its subject are boldfaced. Objects are italicised. We use the
normal interrogative structure with two verbs (infinitive + auxiliary):—
What did he do? — (Object: what; Subject: he; Infinitive Verb: do)
Below are subject questions. — The verb and its subject are boldfaced. We use a different interrogative
structure: the tense in correct form but no auxiliary verb.
What happened?
(Honestly, I wish I never learnt this grammar crap and just went by the “short practical answer” up top
of this answer because the results mostly came to the same thing in practical life.)