The Phrasal Verb 'Run Into' Explained
- Jul 24
- 11 min read
An explanation of the different meanings of the English phrasal verb 'run into' from a native speaker, with lots of examples in context
Hello and welcome to my website for English learners all about phrasal verbs where I explain their different meanings to help you understand, learn and use them like a native.
This post is a written guide all about the English phrasal verb 'run into' and how to use it like a native speaker. In the post, I will explain four different ways that you can use it, which include to talk about meeting people by chance and things that cost a lot of money. In addition, I will give you lots of example sentences for each usage to help you learn how to use it naturally and confidently. So, let's make a start and see what the phrasal verb 'run into' is all about....
QUICK ANSWER: What does the phrasal verb 'run into' mean?The phrasal verb 'run into' has four main meanings in English.
Keep reading to learn how to use each of these, with lots of example sentences.... |
TABLE OF CONTENTS (Click to jump to each one)
I love writing this blog & helping learners but I receive very little feedback as to how useful it is or if people enjoy & learn from it. Therefore, if you find the post useful, please like & share it or leave a comment at the end. I'd be very grateful. Thank you! James 😊 |
THE BASICS
RUN INTO: KEY INFORMATION
Usage | Common |
Number of meanings | 4 |
Past tense forms | Ran into / Run into |
Separable? | No |
I know that you are here to learn more about the phrasal verb 'run into' but how well do you know its individual words 'run' and 'into'? Let's take a brief look at them now to begin....
Run - 'To run' is a common verb in English that can be used to talk about subjects such as movement and management. In it's purest sense, it means 'to move faster than walking with moments when neither foot is on the ground'. In addition, we can also use it to talk about liquids that flow e.g. rivers or tears as well as public transport like buses and trains. In the business world, 'to run' is used to talk about managing a company and making sure that it is successful. It is an ergative verb, which means that it can be used both transitively and intransitively. It is also irregular, with 'run' being both of its past tense forms.
I run 5km at least twice a week.
The cat ran after the mouse.
The water was running along the side of the road.
The hourly bus service runs from 8am to 6pm.
Kathy runs three businesses and also teaches yoga in her spare time.
Into - The prepositional particle 'into' is a combination of the particles 'in' and 'to' and is generally used to indicate a movement from the outside of something to the inside of it. This idea is often transferred to the phrasal verbs that it appears in (go into). In addition, it can also add the ideas of entering a new stage or condition (fall into), participation (get into), investigation (look into) and transformation (turn into).
So, now that we have covered the basics, let's move on to the different meanings of the phrasal verb 'run into'....
MEANING 1: Literal
CEFR Language Level | A2 - Elementary |
Usage | Common |
Where is it used? | Everywhere |
Potential synonyms | To dash into, to run inside |
Separable? | No |
For the majority of this article, we will be looking at the figurative meanings of the phrasal verb 'run into', however it can also be used in a literal way so let's start by looking at this one in more detail....
Nouns commonly used with this application....
|
As you can probably guess, when we use 'run into' literally, we are simply just talking about entering an internal space by running (rather than walking). For example, excited children may run into their house when they get home from school (like in the picture above) or a firefighter may run into a burning building to rescue someone who is trapped inside it.
Note that is does not always have to be an internal space as we can also use it for any nouns with which we can use 'in' that are not typically enclosed e.g. garden, sea.
The children ran into the house as soon as it started to rain.
Caroline ran into the shop to buy a bottle of water.
My Dad ran into the office to answer the ringing phone.
The cat ran into the garden and started chasing the birds.
The firefighters ran into the burning building without hesitation.
As I mentioned earlier, the verb 'to run' can also be used for liquids that flow and we can use this literal application of 'run into' to describe when rivers end by flowing into another river or body of water. Unsurprisingly, this usage is common in the field of geography. You should note that while we do use this, 'flow into' is actually used more commonly to describe it.
The river runs into the sea just south of the town.
Several small streams run into the lake from the surrounding hills.
The Thames runs into the North Sea through the Thames Estuary.
If any of you reading this enjoy art and painting, you should note that we can also use this literal sense of the phrasal verb 'run into' to describe when two or more paint or ink colours mix with each other unintentionally. As paint is liquid, it flows or runs into other colours on the canvas, often creating an unwanted and ugly mess.
Be careful not to let the blue paint run into the white.
The wet colours ran into each other and created a muddy green.
The ink ran into the paper and blurred the writing.
MEANING 2: To meet someone by chance
CEFR Language Level | B2 - Upper intermediate |
Usage | Common |
Where is it used? | Everywhere |
Potential synonyms | To meet, to bump into |
Separable? | No |
The second of the meanings of the phrasal verb 'run into' is a common one that many of you may have heard before and means 'to meet someone by chance'.
Nouns commonly used with this application....
|
Perhaps the first thing that I should explain is that we are not talking about meeting someone for the first time here, but rather meeting someone who you already know by accident or when did you not plan to.
Imagine that you are shopping in a supermarket and when you turn into the frozen food aisle, you unexpectedly see a friend there doing their shopping too. In this situation, it would be common to say afterwards that you "ran into a friend in the supermarket". This usage is not just limited to supermarkets though and you can use it for any time that you unexpectedly encounter, a friend, colleague, relative or acquaintance.
You should note that you would only use this if you actually stop and speak to the person; if you only saw the person or chose to avoid them, you would probably not use it.
While this usage is common on both sides of the Atlantic, it is perhaps slightly more common in American English as in British English we also commonly use the phrasal verb 'bump into' to describe this type of encounter.
I ran into an old friend while I was shopping yesterday.
We ran into our neighbours on holiday in Spain.
Tracey ran into her former teacher at the train station.
You never know who you're going to run into in London.
I ran into Sarah at the supermarket, and we ended up chatting for half an hour.
Jeremy ran into his ex-girlfriend at a concert last weekend.
We ran into each other completely by chance outside the cinema.
Josephine ran into one of her university classmates after nearly twenty years.
MEANING 3: To encounter an unexpected problem
CEFR Language Level | B2 - Upper intermediate |
Usage | Common |
Where is it used? | Everywhere |
Potential synonyms | To encounter, to face |
Separable? | No |
The next application of the phrasal verb 'run into' is very similar in nature to the previous one as it also carries the idea of chance encounters, but this time we are focussing on problems, rather than people.
Nouns commonly used with this application....
|
Has it ever happened to you that you have been planning and working on something for a long period of time and just before it is ready, a problem occurs that you were not expecting that delays your plans or causes you to change everything. If the answer is yes, then you could say in this instance that you "ran into a problem".
We can use this application of 'run into' to describe any time that we begin to experience unexpected problems or difficulties with something that can disrupt or delay our plans. Moreover, its usage can also extend to situations involving unforeseen trouble or danger.
We ran into a few problems during the project.
The company has run into financial difficulties.
I ran into some technical issues while installing the software.
Emma ran into trouble when her passport expired.
If you run into any problems, just let me know.
They ran into delays because of the bad weather.
The soldiers ran into enemy fire.
The negotiations ran into difficulties almost immediately.
The proposal ran into strong criticism.
It is also possible to use this third application of 'run into' to describe moments when we experience unexpected bad weather, which causes problems or issues with when travelling or trying to do something.
We ran into a heavy storm halfway across the Atlantic.
The hikers ran into thick fog as they climbed higher.
Our flight ran into severe turbulence caused by a thunderstorm.
The cyclists ran into strong headwinds during the final stage of the race.
We ran into heavy rain just after we left the campsite.
MEANING 4: To hit something with a vehicle
CEFR Language Level | B2 - Upper intermediate |
Usage | Medium |
Where is it used? | Everywhere |
Potential synonyms | To crash into, to collide (with) |
Separable? | Sometimes |
For our next application of the phrasal verb 'run into', we need to turn our attention towards the roads and driving as this one means 'to hit something with a vehicle'.
Nouns commonly used with this application....
|
I am a bad driver. Not a bad driver in the sense that I am careless and drive dangerously but in the sense that I just do not have a natural ability to drive a vehicle well like some people do. Despite this, I have never before run into anything in a car, or in other words, I have never caused a car that I am driving to collide with something else (although there have been some close moments!).
To clarify, we use this application of the phrasal verb 'run into' to describe any moments or instances of when a person is driving a car (or other vehicle) and accidentally causes it crash into something else like a wall, a house or another car.
You should note that this application is quite common but we use the phrasal verb 'crash into' a lot more to describe these unfortunate events.
The car ran into a tree after skidding on the ice.
A bus ran into a parked car at the traffic lights.
The lorry has run into a bridge as it was too high to go under.
My train ran into a fallen tree blocking the tracks.
The boat ran into some rocks near the shore.
The ship ran into an iceberg during the night.
The plane nearly ran into another aircraft on the runway.
In the example sentences above, we are focussed on the type of transport that is involved in the collision, but it is also possible with this application to specify the person driving who is responsible for it. When we do this, the phrasal verb becomes separable and the type of public transport goes between the verb 'run' and the particle 'into', as per the structure below:
Person + run + possessive pronoun + vehicle + into + object
Jenny accidentally ran her car into a lamppost.
The driver ran his van into the back of a lorry.
Andrew lost control and ran his car into a tree.
I fell asleep when driving and almost ran my car into someone's house.
MEANING 5: To amount to
CEFR Language Level | C1 - Advanced |
Usage | Medium |
Where is it used? | Everywhere |
Potential synonyms | To amount to, to add up to |
Separable? | No |
The final of the applications of the phrasal verb 'run into' is one that is used to describe numbers and figures and means 'to amount to'.
Nouns commonly used with this applications....
|
Firstly, I should explain that although this application of 'run into' does mean 'to amount to', it is not used to give a specific or definite numerical figure. Instead, we use it to give an approximation (or non-definite) figure. This is typically when a number or figure, most commonly the cost of something, has been rising and passes a particular threshold such as a thousand or a million.
Secondly, to express this we say that the threshold that has been exceeded in plural form, for example you could say that "the costs have run into the millions" or that "the number of casualties in the war have run into the thousands".
In the first example above we are saying that the costs of something have exceeded one million pounds or dollars etc but we don't know exactly what the total will be in the end but we know that it will be over this amount. Likewise, for the second example the number of people injured or killed in the war has risen to over 1000 and now could be anywhere between 1,000 and 9,999 (above this we would say "tens of thousands").
As you can imagine, this application is particularly common in business, finance and formal English. Most commonly, we use it when the costs or numbers involved are very high and therefore it carries a nuance of surprise or shock.
The costs of the repairs ran into thousands of pounds.
The final bill ran into six figures.
Legal costs can easily run into the millions.
The project ran into millions of dollars before it was completed.
His medical expenses ran into tens of thousands of pounds.
The charity has raised donations that run into the hundreds of thousands.
The delays meant that the total cost ran into £2 million.
The queue ran into hundreds of people.
BONUS: The idiom 'to run something into the ground'
One other way that you may come across the phrasal verb 'run into' is in the common expression 'to run something into the ground'.
We use this idiom to talk about businesses and companies when they are mismanaged so badly that they fail and go out out of business or are no longer successful. This may be on purpose or through bad management.
The new owner ran the business into the ground within three years.
Poor management ran the company into the ground.
They inherited a successful restaurant but soon ran it into the ground.
We have now reached the end of this post and I hope that you have found it useful and that it has helped you to understand how to use the phrasal verb 'run into' more confidently and naturally.
Feel free to leave any comments, feedback or your own sentences using 'run into' in the section below. Also, if you found the post useful, please like and share it on social media.
Do you want to improve your phrasal verb skills ? If yes, check out my downloadable phrasal verb workbooks, which include clear explanations, common learner mistakes, exercises, speaking practice and answer keys to help you master the phrasal verbs that native speakers use every day. Browse the workbooks here. |
Thanks so much for reading and see you next time! James 😊
THE END
Comments