Learn Italian: Ho incontrato il dottore per caso.

Ho incontrato il dottore per caso.

I met the doctor by chance.

Breakdown of Ho incontrato il dottore per caso.

for / in order to / because of

il caso

the chance; the case (per caso = by chance)

Questions & Answers about Ho incontrato il dottore per caso.

Why use incontrato instead of conosciuto for "met"?

Incontrare means to bump into someone or see someone you already know. If you were meeting the doctor for the very first time, you would use conosciuto (from conoscere).

What does per caso literally mean?

It translates to "by chance" or "by coincidence." The word caso means "chance" or "case." If you want to ask "by any chance?" in a question, you also use per caso.

If I wanted to add a modal verb and say "I had to meet the doctor," which helper verb would I use?

You would still use avere, making it Ho dovuto incontrare il dottore. In this lesson you are learning that modal verbs (dovere, potere, volere) borrow their helper verb from the main action. Since incontrare takes a direct object (il dottore) and always uses avere, a modal verb in front of it will also use avere.

Why is there an il before dottore? Don't we just say "met doctor"?

In Italian, you must use a definite article (like il or la) when talking about someone with a professional title. You only drop the article if you are speaking directly to them, for example if you were to say "Buongiorno, dottore!"