A surprise meeting can happen anywhere. This expression describes meeting someone by chance.
The idea
Run into means meet unexpectedly and is common in everyday English. Keep a noun or pronoun after into: run into a friend, run into her. The past is ran into.
Examples
- I ran into my neighbour at the market.
- We ran into our teacher on the train.
- Did you run into her at the station?
- I often run into old friends at this café.
- She ran into a colleague near the museum.
- You might run into them at the festival.
Read-aloud uses a synthetic English voice on your device. Quality and availability vary; it does not assess pronunciation.
No English device voice is available. You can still read the examples.
Watch out
Do not put the person between the verb and into: run her into does not mean a chance meeting.
Try it yourself
Choose the correct option. Yesterday I ___ into an old friend. (ran / run)
Show answer or example answer
ran
ran: yesterday calls for the simple past.
Choose the correct option. We ran into ___. (him / he)
Show answer or example answer
him
him: the person is an object, so use the object pronoun.
Choose the correct option. I met her by chance: I ran ___ her. (into / out)
Show answer or example answer
into
into: this completes the expression for an unexpected meeting.
Practice round
Answer questions and rebuild English sentences to practise. Your score is shown.
Choose the correct option. Yesterday I ___ into an old friend. (ran / run)
Choose the correct option. We ran into ___. (him / he)
Choose the correct option. I met her by chance: I ran ___ her. (into / out)
Tap the words in the right order.
Tap the words in the right order.
Tap the words in the right order.
Keep your progress
Sign up for free to save your practice results.
Sign up to saveI already have an accountUse it today
Write about someone you met unexpectedly and where it happened.