bump into: meaning and explanation
The meaning of phrasal verb to bump into someone is to meet someone by chance, without planning to.
For example, if you're walking to the shops and you see one of your friends (without arranging to meet them) then you can say that you bumped into them on the way to the shops.
e.g. I bumped into an old friend today while walking the dog. It was such a nice surprise!
e.g. We live in the same small town, so we're always bumping into each other.
Note that this meaning is only used when talking about people. Phrasal verbs with a similar meaning to bump into, but which are used with things, are come across, run across, stumble upon, stumble on.
A safe synonym of bump into is run into. e.g. I ran into Josh earlier on. He said to say hi.
This phrasal verb is a good example of how the more metaphorical meaning of a phrasal verb is connected to a more literal meaning. If you literally bump into something, then you walk into it (probably because you weren't being careful or looking where you were going). e.g. I was so busy scrolling through Facebook on my phone that I bumped into a lamp post. This meaning is extended to the more metaphorical meaning: you meet someone without planning to (or looking for them).
Have a go at these micro-dictation exercises to hear this expression being used in context – how much can you understand?
Listening exercises
Dictation #1
Accent: Northern England
About the sentence
...he's invited us all round...
To invite somebody round is a phrasal verb which means to invite someone to your house, e.g. for a meal.
Dictation #2
Accent: North America
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Dictation #3
Accent: Ireland
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Extra practice
Here are some questions/links to help you learn the new vocabulary:
- Tell me a story, starting with: "The other day I bumped into...".
- What do you think is happening in the photo at the top of this post?
Photo by Perry Grone on Unsplash
Feeling complicated to understand the pronunciation
Yes, understanding the pronunciation of natural, spoken English can be really difficult. Often this is because words are not pronounced in the way you are expecting! Which bits did you have problems with?
I think this is a great way to practise listening skills. Thanks a lot.
Thank you Khrystyna! You’re very welcome
I’m having issues to play the listenings. am I the only one with this problem?
The other day I bumped into a special person I met in my instituto and I miss him a lot
Well done Gabriela, good example 🙂
One comment I’d make is on ‘instituto’ – you need an English word to use instead of this. Do you mean school/workplace/company/institute?
The other day I bumped into a friend I hadn’t seen since I graduated from high school. It was a surprising encounter, as It has been 5 years since then, and It happened in his university library that I usually visit
Almost perfect example Cristian! The only suggestion I would make is to use the past perfect again later in the sentence, like this: “…as it had been 5 years…”. This is because you talking about a period of time before a time in the past. When you are talking about the pst before the past, use the past perfect.