bất đắc bất nhiên
Proposed by a contributor, not yet supported by evidence.
Meaning · English
Unexpected things often happen when least expected
Literally: unexpectedly not sudden
Examples
Tôi bất đắc bất nhiên gặp lại người bạn cũI unexpectedly met my old friend again
AI-drafted example auto-approved by rule (illustrative, not a corpus attestation)
Sources & notes
Discovered via Nam ngạn chích cẩm (Phạm Quang Sán, 1918; public domain, via vi.wikisource); retrieved 2026-08-01. Source: source ↗ Attested in Nam ngạn chích cẩm (Phạm Quang Sán, 1918). Definition drafted by AI (@cf/meta/llama-3.3-70b-instruct-fp8-fast) and auto-approved by rule on 2026-08-01; pending editor spot-check.
Common questions
What does “bất đắc bất nhiên” mean?
Unexpected things often happen when least expected Literally: unexpectedly not sudden
Is “bất đắc bất nhiên” formal or informal?
No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.