竟然: would you believe it

竟然 carries the speaker's surprise: “would you believe it”. It comes after the subject, before the verb. Its opposite is 果然, “just as expected”: 他果然来了, I knew he would; 他竟然来了, I never thought he would.

Examples

• 他竟然来了。 Tā jìngrán lái le. He actually came.
• 这么难的题，他竟然做对了。 Zhème nán de tí, tā jìngrán zuò duì le. Such a hard question, and he got it right!
• 她竟然忘了我的生日。 Tā jìngrán wàng le wǒ de shēngrì. She actually forgot my birthday.

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