Befall

'To befall' is a rather archaic word meaning 'to happen to'. It is derived from the irregular verb 'to fall', with something of the sense of '[an event] fell [in my way]'. In Present-day English, it is used mostly with an indirect object in such phrases as "it befell him" (~ 'it happened to him').

'To befall' is an irregular verb. Its forms are given here:

Base form	past tense	-ed participle	Remarks
befall	befell	befallen	cf. Fall (irregular verb)

This is one of the "the 250 or so irregular verbs" listed in Quirk 1985. The list "contains most of the irregular verbs in present-day English ... but is not meant to be exhaustive, particularly with regard to derivative verbs." AWE has copied most of the entries in that list. The verb 'to befall' belongs to Quirk's Class 4 B e.

In both British English and American English, the verb and its inflections are written with double '-l-', as above.

For an etymological note about the origins of this word, see be-. You may also want to see a further note about spelling at -l - -ll-.