right place at the right time
- idiom
- Informal
- She found a great job because she was in the right place at the right time.
I was proud to be in the right place at the right time.
- I was proud to be in the right place at the right time.
- I think now football's become so consumed in tactical being, being in the right place at the right time.
- They don't they don't realize that she was just in the right place at the right time.
- And yeah, I, I just, I was in the right place at the right time, I guess.
- I would argue that Adele's song is remarkable, remarkable and was in the right place at the right time for distribution.
- And eventually, if they're fortunate, one of their ideas happens to hit the right place at the right time.
- I, I mean, I've been, I've been lucky most of the time, I suppose in the right place at the right time.
- They're brilliant people and you really have to be looking at the right place at the right time.
- Yeah, I think partially with serendipity, I was in the right place at the right time on the right St.
Examples
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I was in the right place at the right time.
Fiction book (1998) -
I seem to have always been in the right place at the right time.
Academic text (2009) -
But they were in sort of the right place at the right time for quite a few of these things.
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Just a matter of being the right place at the right time.
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Because he was at the right place at the right time.
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I just happened to show up at the right place at the right time.
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I was just in the right place at the right time.
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I am always at the right place at the right time.
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You have to be in the right place at the right time.
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Why do we always have to be in the right place at the right time?
Synonyms
By good luck, things turn out well
Having something good happen by chance
Antonyms
How Fortunate
Surface Forms
Morphology
right + place + at + the + right + time
The meaning is directly and compositionally built from the constituents: being in the 'right' (correct/favourable) 'place' at the 'right' 'time' describes a situation where circumstances favour success. This literal, commonsense framing is cross-linguistically common and follows standard noun phrase composition, so a B1 learner who knows the words would readily infer the intended meaning.
Etymology
Right place at the right time gives the simple picture of someone standing in the right place at the right time exactly when something good happens. So, it means being in a situation where things happen to help you 'succeed' or get an opportunity 'by chance'.