{"id":19269,"date":"2023-10-16T06:00:00","date_gmt":"2023-10-16T11:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/plainenglish.com\/?post_type=expressions&p=19269"},"modified":"2024-11-20T23:11:30","modified_gmt":"2024-11-21T05:11:30","slug":"come-as-a-surprise","status":"publish","type":"expressions","link":"https:\/\/plainenglish.com\/expressions\/come-as-a-surprise\/","title":{"rendered":"Come as a surprise"},"content":{"rendered":"

Come as a surprise<\/h3>\n

Now I\u2019m going to show you a really common English expression\u2014\u201ccome as a surprise.\u201d If something is unexpected <\/span>, it comes as a surprise.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ll show you three ways of using this expression today. Let\u2019s start with the basic way <\/span> of using it. You\u2019ll want to talk about an event and say that it \u201ccomes as a surprise\u201d or it \u201ccame as a surprise.\u201d<\/p>\n

For example, you can say: \u201cThe CEO\u2019s resignation <\/span>\u201d\u2014that\u2019s the event\u2014\u201cThe CEOs\u2019 resignation came as a surprise, since he was relatively young <\/span> and had no plans to retire <\/span>.\u201d That means, the CEO\u2019s resignation surprised people <\/span>. So you can say it came as a surprise.<\/p>\n

After the pandemic, many economists were worried that the economy would suffer <\/span> a sharp recession <\/span>. But the post-pandemic growth <\/span> and the post-pandemic inflation came as a surprise. You might even remember leading economists <\/span>\u2014including central bank <\/span> economists\u2014saying that inflation was temporary<\/a> . That was before they started raising interest rates <\/span>. They were surprised by the inflation <\/span>. The inflation came as a surprise.<\/p>\n

So that\u2019s the first way. You start with a noun or a noun phrase, often an event: the CEO\u2019s resignation, the post-pandemic inflation, and then you say, came as a surprise.<\/p>\n

The second way to use \u201ccome as a surprise\u201d is very, very similar. In this case, we use it with actions. You say, \u201cit came as a surprise that\u2026\u201d or \u201cit came as a surprise when\u2026\u201d and then you say the action that\u2019s surprising. So we\u2019re using verbs here.<\/p>\n

Today I told you all about the theory that whales started to get really big after they developed <\/span> filter feeding <\/span> systems, so they could ingest food <\/span> just by swimming around\u2014or even by staying still in moving waters <\/span>. Really old whales\u2014tens of millions of years ago\u2014they didn\u2019t have these systems, so they couldn\u2019t get really big.<\/p>\n

It came as a surprise when researchers discovered (there\u2019s the verb)\u2014it came as a surprise when researchers discovered a really big whale<\/a> that lived 39 million years ago. That wasn\u2019t supposed to be possible! It came as a surprise because\u2014 up until now <\/span>\u2014scientists thought that whales only got really big relatively<\/a> recently.<\/p>\n

You guys know, if you\u2019ve been listening for a while, that I worked in business consulting <\/span> for over fifteen years. I was somewhat good at it <\/span>, but I also wanted to try my hand <\/span> at something else. You can imagine that I didn\u2019t tell a whole lot of people <\/span> at work that I had already started this business\u2014Plain English\u2014 on the side <\/span>. <\/p>\n

So it came as a surprise to my colleagues <\/span> that I left my massive <\/span> consulting firm and instead started a very small business. People were surprised by that. It came as a surprise that I left my career in consulting\u2014it was surprising because I hadn\u2019t told many people at work about my plans.<\/p>\n

So you can say, \u201cit came as a surprise that\u201d or \u201cit came as a surprise when\u201d plus some type of action. <\/p>\n

Now the last way I\u2019ll show you is a little more complicated <\/span>. This is a way of saying that something is logical <\/span> or expected, that someone should anticipate something <\/span>, or someone should have anticipated something. And you say that something \u201cshould not come as a surprise\u201d or \u201cit should not come as a surprise that..\u201d plus an event or action. <\/p>\n

For example, you can say: \u201cElon Musk\u2019s decision to re-name <\/span> Twitter should not have come as a surprise. He has always criticized <\/span> Twitter\u2019s branding <\/span> and he loves the letter X.\u201d That means, you should not have been surprised about his decision to re-name Twitter. You should have anticipated it. His decision to re-name Twitter should not have come as a surprise.<\/p>\n

You can also say, \u201cIt should not come as a surprise that\u2026\u201d and then an action or event that you think should be anticipated or expected. You can say, \u201cIt should not come as a surprise that she passed the exam <\/span> on her first try <\/span>. She has been studying for months.\u201d<\/p>\n

See you next time!<\/h3>\n

It should not come as a surprise that listening regularly, and reading the transcripts <\/span> as you listen, will help you improve your English. And that\u2019s why we put the full transcripts online <\/span>, each and every episode.<\/p>\n

You can find the transcripts for this lesson by going to PlainEnglish.com\/616. It definitely helps to listen and read at the same time, at least at first.<\/p>\n

Well that is all for today. If you do enjoy Plain English, please take just a few seconds to leave us a rating on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or whatever platform you use <\/span>. It helps us reach more people <\/span>, so we can keep growing and serve you every Monday and Thursday.<\/p>\n

Well that\u2019s all for today. We\u2019ll see you right back here on Thursday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

If something is unexpected, it comes as a surprise<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":19270,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false},"terminology_category":[139],"lesson_number":[2303],"keywords":[172,2304],"content_tag":[],"level":[],"class_list":["post-19269","expressions","type-expressions","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","terminology_category-expression","lesson_number-2303","keywords-come","keywords-surprise"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nCome as a surprise | English lesson | Definition and examples<\/title>\n <!-- Mirrored from plainenglish.com/wp-json/wp/v2/expressions/19269 by HTTrack Website Copier/3.x [XR&CO'2014], Tue, 11 Nov 2025 11:30:11 GMT --> <!-- Added by HTTrack --><meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html;charset=utf-8" /><!-- /Added by HTTrack --> <meta name=\"description\" content=\""Come as a surprise" is a way of describing something that happens unexpectedly. 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