ESL Blog - To meet, to encounter, to come across, to run into

APRIL 18, 2008 | To meet, to encounter, to come across, to run into - what's the difference?

To meet is pretty much always used with people = TO MEET *SOMEONE* ("We met the foreign exchange students at the park", "I'll meet you at the train station", "My mother met my father when she was 18"). Some people would say "we met a dog, cat, etc... This isn't *totally* wrong, but in most instances it would sound strange... like the animal could speak or had human traits or something :) It's best to say "We saw a dog" or "We passed a dog" etc.

To encounter often means to "be faced with", and it is often used with things that can be seen as negative/dangerous: "The soldiers encountered resistance when they tried to enter the city", "We encountered a lot of problems", "They encountered a grizzly bear" - REMEMBER - there is a difference between "We saw a grizzly bear" and "We encountered a grizzly bear" - The second example makes it sound like you were so close to the grizzly bear that there was a potentially dangerous situation :)

To come across means to find unexpectedly, - to fall upon - "I came across some old photos while I was cleaning my room", "I came across a beehive while I was in the forest"

To run into means to meet unexpectedly, - "I ran into some friends of mine at the beach", "Did I tell you that I ran into your sister last Saturday?" REMEMBER - both to come across and to run into refer to situations when something happens unexpectedly. In most cases, you can't say "Let's run into each other on Saturday." :)

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