Can the word 'happen' be used in a passive sentence?

[Tansy]

In 14214m13.wmv file, at 14:39, I see this sentence: "Sometimes there is oil spilled into the seas because the ships may collide or other accidents can be happened."
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I've never seen the verb 'happen' used in a passive sentence before.
So, I searched for the answers and found something really interesting!

Tooth decay is a common dental issue that can be happened among children.
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This sentence is incorrect.

Tooth decay is a common dental issue that can be found among children.
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This sentence is correct.

Dentists find that because of the modern tendency to eat lots of candy and drink fruit juice, childhood tooth decay can be happened upon a lot more frequently today than in the past.
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This relatively unusual form of "can be happened" is not strictly incorrect. That's because there is a variant of the meaning of happen where it means "to discover" or "to find unexpectedly" etc.

Source:
https://ell.stackexchange.com/questions ... that-wrong
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To get to this site, right click the link and choose "Open link in new tab" or " Open link in new window".

Conclusion:
Do you think this sentence: "Sometimes there is oil spilled into the seas because the ships may collide or other accidents can be happened."
is incorrect?

[chrish]

Hello Kh Tansy,

Yes, as the answers in the Stack Exchange q/a say, the sentence you've given is wrong and "can happen" would be correct. The SE discussion is worth reading through. "Accidents can happen" is actually an idiom in itself.

"Happen" isn't normally used in the passive, like "occur" and probably other similar verbs. However, as dtk points out on SE, there is a phrasal verb "to happen upon", which means basically "to find by accident". Also possible is "happen on", although since you can easily have a prepositional phrase with "on" occur after "happen", it's potentially confusing. For example, "it happened on Tuesday" has a different structure from "he happened on a 20-baht banknote". Maybe the reason we use "happen upon" is to avoid this confusion.

Even so, I'm sure "happen upon" used in the passive voice is rare, even if correct.

[Tansy]

Thank you, Ajarn Chrish.

In that case, somebody should ask the video tutorial producer to correct the sentence "Sometimes there is oil spilled into the seas because the ships may collide or other accidents can be happened." to read: "Sometimes there is oil spilled into the seas because the ships may collide or other accidents can happen/occur." And the teacher's voice has to be changed too.