Hi students, it’s Shayna from EspressoEnglish.net and the expression you’re going to learn today is “out of the blue.” If something happens out of the blue, this means it happens suddenly and unexpectedly; we couldn’t have imagined that it would happen.
Here’s an example: let’s say I had a childhood friend who I then lost touch with; I lost contact with this friend and I didn’t have any contact with her for many years. Then, one day, out of the blue she sent me a letter. “Out of the blue” means I was not expecting to receive her letter – so it was a surprise.
A similar expression is “out of nowhere.” Here’s an example for that: I had a car accident; I was driving along the street and I turned left. Then, out of nowhere, a motorcycle appeared and crashed into my car. “Out of nowhere” means I didn’t see the motorcycle, I wasn’t expecting the motorcycle and it came unexpectedly and crashed into my car.
You can also say that a person came out of nowhere when this person’s history and origins are not very well known. For example, you could say, “Ryan came out of nowhere to win the national skateboarding championships.” This means that Ryan was not famous previously and few people know where he came from. But, unexpectedly, he appeared in the national championships and won them.
So those are our two phrases for today: out of the blue and out of nowhere, meaning that something happened unexpectedly and suddenly; it was a surprise; we couldn’t have predicted it.
I hope you’ve enjoyed today’s video and I’ll see you next time with the new English phrase of the day.
You’ll learn hundreds of conversational English expressions in this course:
