What is the meaning of the expression « Cela n’a pas manqué d’arriver. » and « Ça n’a pas manqué. »

Question

I would like to know if I have the correct meanings of (a) and (b).

(a) « Cela n’a pas manqué d’arriver. »

(b) « Ça n’a pas manqué. ».

Please click here to go to Académie Française from where this screenshot was taken

I think the meaning of (a) in English is “It’s definitely going to happen.”

I think the meaning of (b) in English is “It’s definitely going to happen.” also.

Questions

(1) The English meanings I have given may not be the best English translations but that’s okay as all I really need to know is if I have the BASIC meaning of (a) and (b) correct. Could you please confirm if I’m right please.

(2) My last question is, is it possible to swap the verb arriver in « Cela n’a pas manqué d’arriver. » for any other verb? That is, could I say « Cela n’a pas de faire. » which would mean “It will definitely be made.” So all I need for this question is a yes or no answer.

Thank you for your help guys!😊

Answer 1

The meaning you give is correct, but not well situated in time. See this translation of Larousse

• ça ne manquera pas = it's sure OU bound to happen (in the future)
• j'ai dit qu'elle reviendrait et ça n'a pas manqué! = I said she'd come back and sure enough(she did)! (in the past)

So both a and b actually mean: it definitely did happen! (not "going to happen").

As for your second question, yes, you can change the verb and say

Cela n’a pas manqué de faire (des vagues, par exemple).

This sentence would mean it definitely did make waves. "ça ne manquera pas de + verbe" is quite common (I found many hits on Google). Note, however, that if you change the verb in "ça ne manquera pas d'arriver", it will cease to be an idiomatic phrase.

If you mean to say "It will definitely be made" the "correct" way would be:

Cela ne manquera pas d'être fait.

But this sentence doesn't sound native at all. I found only one poor hit on Google. There are much better ways of saying that in French.