To Meet By Chance
To Meet Unexpectedly, To Come Across, To Encounter, To Run Into
intransitive verb, godan verb
You exit your house and you meet someone. You didn’t mean to meet them, but it happened anyway. That’s why this word means to meet by chance.
The reading is that of the word 出る and the word 会う, both of which you've hopefully seen. The 出 portion may be confusing, but you can usually assume that if one part of the word is kun'yomi / vocab reading, the other part is too, which is why 出 uses the vocab reading.
Oh by the way, this word can be written like this too: 出合う. It’s not as common, but you may come across it every now and then, so it’s good to know!
本に出会う
to encounter a book
人に出会う
to meet a person by chance
その時に出会う
to meet by chance at that time
本と出会う
to encounter a book
人と出会う
to meet a person by chance
あなたと出会う
to meet you by chance
学校で出会う
to meet by chance at school
町で出会う
to meet by chance in town
道で出会う
to meet by chance in the street
この国では、日本人に出会うチャンスがあまりない。
In this country, there are not many opportunities to meet Japanese people.
この町では色々な人に出会って、親切にしてもらいました。
I met various people in this town and they were kind to me.
ご主人とは、一体どこで出会ったんですか？
Where did you meet your husband?