phrasal verb🧩 phrasal verb

run into

to meet by chance

What it means

To meet someone unexpectedly by chance, without planning to. It can also mean to encounter a problem or to crash into something with a vehicle.

Examples

  • I ran into an old school friend at the supermarket yesterday afternoon.
  • We ran into some unexpected problems while renovating the kitchen.
  • She wasn't paying attention and ran into the back of a parked car.
  • If you run into any trouble during the journey, just give me a call.

Where it comes from

Inseparable phrasal verb. The 'meet by chance' sense is informal and very common in spoken English; 'bump into' is a close synonym with the same accidental feel.

Related phrasal verbs

#come across#catch up with#find out

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