▎竟然, jìngrán, (Adv), to the speaker’s great surprise, unbelievably

 

Function The S2 adverb 竟然 expresses the speaker’s amazement at some fact.

1 食品安全影響人民的健康，可是政府竟然不好好管理。

Shípǐn ānquán yǐngxiǎng rénmín de jiànkāng, kěshì zhèngfǔ jìngrán bù hǎohǎo guǎnlǐ.

Food safety affects people’s health, yet somehow the government isn’t doing a good job of controlling it.

2 政客為了自己的利益，竟然阻止公平的政策與制度。

Zhèngkè wéile zìjǐ de lìyì, jìngrán zǔzhǐ gōngpíng de zhèngcè yǔ zhìdù.

It’s unbelievable. Politicians will impede fair policy and governance for the sake of personal benefit.

3 他擁有那麼大的企業，但是他的學歷竟然只是小學畢業。

Tā yǒngyǒu nàme dà de qìyè, dànshì tā de xuélì jìngrán zhǐshì xiǎoxué bìyè.

He is in charge of such a large enterprise, yet he is only an elementary school graduate.

 

Structures

(1) 居然jūrán is more colloquial, while 竟然 is more formal. In most cases the two can be used interchangeably.

(2) 竟然 can be reduced to just 竟jìng, but 居然 cannot be reduced, e.g.,

沒想到現在每八個嬰兒中，竟有一個雙親之一不是本國國籍。 （＊居）

Méi xiǎngdào xiànzài měi bā ge yīng’ér zhōng, jìng yǒu yí ge shuāngqīn zhī yī bú shì běnguó guójí.

I didn’t realize that for every eight babies born today, it turns out that one of the two parents is not a local.

(3) 竟然 is a regular adverb, always placed after the subject and before verb phrases, while 居然 is a non-typical, i.e., movable adverb, placed either before or after the subject. Other non-typical adverbs include 難道nándào ‘could it be that’, 畢竟bìjìng ‘after all’, 到底dàodǐ ‘after all’, 難得nándé ‘rare, hard to come by’, and 大概dàgài ‘probably’, etc….

1 我說的都是真的，他居然不相信。/ 我說的都是真的，居然他不相信。

Wǒ shuō de dōu shì zhēn de, tā jūrán bù xiāngxìn./ Wǒ shuō de dōu shì zhēn de, jūrán tā bù xiāngxìn.

Everything I said was true. And you know what, he doesn’t believe me.

2 我說的都是真的，他竟然不相信。/ ＊我說的都是真的，竟然他不相信。

Wǒ shuō de dōu shì zhēn de, tā jìngrán bù xiāngxìn. / ＊Wǒ shuō de dōu shì zhēn de, jìngrán tā bù xiāngxìn.

Everything I said was true. And you know what, he doesn’t believe me.