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What does “next thing I knew” mean?
Meaning, example sentence and a quick practice question.
B2 · C1
Used to describe something sudden happening in a story
“Next thing I knew, everyone was cheering.”
From the B2 lesson You'll Never Guess… and the C1 lesson You'll Never Guess… (telling news).
Quick check
What does “next thing I knew” mean?
Teaching this phrase?“next thing I knew” is part of a ready-to-teach lesson, with a reading, three exercises, speaking tasks and an answer key, in Everyday English Chunks B2 Pack 2 (Plans, Problems and Feelings) and C1 Pack 2 (Plans, Problems and Feelings).
See the B2 lesson pack See the C1 lesson pack
See the B2 lesson pack See the C1 lesson pack
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Related phrases
- out of the bluesuddenly and unexpectedly
- it turned outused to reveal how something eventually happened
- to cut a long story shortused to summarize a story, skipping the details
- funnily enoughused to introduce something slightly surprising or coincidental
- in the endused to describe the final result of a situation
- as it happensused to introduce a coincidence
- all of a suddensuddenly, without warning
- believe it or notused to introduce something surprising but true
- guess whatused to introduce exciting or surprising news
- little did I knowused to say you didn't realize something important at the time
- much to my surpriseused to say something surprised you, often pleasantly
- as luck would have itby chance, often in a fortunate way