Chinese word

偶然

Pronunciation

Pinyinǒu rán

Meaning

  • adverbby chance

Example

我偶然遇见了她。wǒ ǒu rán yù jiàn le tā

I met her by chance.

Illustration for 偶然 (by chance)

More examples

整理旧箱子时，我偶然发现了一封信。zhéng lǐ jiù xiāng zi shí wǒ ǒu rán fā xiàn le yì fēng xìn

While sorting through an old box, I happened to find a letter.

Core concept

A meeting or event that arrives outside the plan, without being required to happen.

Common phrases

  • 偶然遇见ǒu rán yù jiàn

    meet by chance

  • 偶然发现ǒu rán fā xiàn

    discover by chance

  • 偶然发生ǒu rán fā shēng

    happen by chance

Similar words

碰巧pèng qiǎo: Happening through an unexpected coincidence of circumstances.
正好zhèng hǎo: Happening when circumstances line up at just the right time.

Definition in Chinese

表示未经计划或没有必然因果而发生的情况或遭遇，常用作副词表示“恰好、碰巧”，有时也可作形容词表示非刻意的状态。biǎo shì wèi jīng jì huà huò méi yǒu bì rán yīn guǒ ér fā shēng de qíng kuàng huò zāo yù cháng yòng zuò fù cí biǎo shì qià hǎo pèng qiǎo yǒu shí yě kě zuò xíng róng cí biǎo shì fēi kè yì de zhuàng tài

Word origin

In the compound, 偶 (ǒu, "accidental") contributes an unplanned event and 然 (rán, "in that state") presents it as a state of simply being so.

Usage tips

  • The word can also come before a noun to describe an event or state that is not deliberate, so it works in both action sentences and noun phrases.

Other meanings

  • coincidencenoun

Opposites

Related words

  • 偶然性ǒu rán xìngrandomnessnoun
  • 偶然的ǒu rán deaccidentaladjective
  • 偶然地ǒu rán dìaccidentallyadverb

Word lists with this word