next thing one knows
- idiom
- Informal
:
de repente
- You begin scrolling through your phone, and next thing one knows, it's already midnight.
Examples
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I was cleaning the kitchen, and next thing one knows, hours had passed.
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She started chatting with a friend, and next thing one knows, they had missed the train.
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I was at home, and the next thing one knows, I was at the party!
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She was studying, and the next thing one knows, the exam was over.
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I was cleaning the kitchen, and next thing one knows, hours had passed.
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You begin scrolling through your phone, and next thing one knows, it's already midnight.
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She started chatting with a friend, and next thing one knows, they had missed the train.
Synonyms
183
4.2
Happens suddenly without warning or effort
1
7.4
Two very different things happen quickly one after the other
Said when something happens suddenly, as if by magic
Surface Forms
Morphology
The sense of a sudden or unexpected sequence is partly signalled by 'next' (following) and 'thing' (event), so a learner who knows the words can infer a temporal sequence. However, the phrase functions as a fixed, conversational connective ('the next thing I/one knows…' = 'suddenly/before one realizes') and carries an idiomatic pragmatic meaning that is not fully predictable from the parts without exposure, so it is only partially transparent.
Etymology
Next thing one knows comes from the way people tell quick stories: you move from one moment to the very next thing as if time jumps forward. So it is used to say something happened 'suddenly' or 'without you noticing'.