to bump into somebody: 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.

Have a go at this dictation exercise to hear this expression being used in context – how much can you understand?

Dictation #1

Accent: Northern England

Difficult

Tom – .

Medium

I Tom earlier – he's over for a .

Easy

I into Tom earlier – he's invited all over for a drink Friday.

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..

Discussion questions

Write your answers to these questions in the comments section, and I’ll get back to you with some feedback:

  • 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?

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Phrasal Verbs

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