run into — encounter difficulties
phrasal verbC1IELTS 7+neutralcommon
to unexpectedly experience or face problems, difficulties, or obstacles, especially in a project, process, or plan.
Say it like a native
Textbook The project encountered a number of unforeseen complications.
Native The project ran into a few problems.
'Run into' is the everyday verb for hitting problems; 'encountered unforeseen complications' is formal.
Pattern: run into + problems/difficulties/obstacles/trouble
In use
- The company ran into financial difficulties after the market crash.problems
- Many students run into problems when adapting to a new educational system, particularly if the teaching style is very different from what they are used to.IELTS speaking
Common mistake
✗ We ran into with some problems.
✓ We ran into some problems.
'Run into' takes the object directly — no 'with'.
Common collocations
run into + trouble— problems, trouble, difficulties, debt
Don't confuse it
This sense is figurative and refers to encountering abstract problems or difficulties, not physically meeting someone (sense 1) or colliding with something (sense 2).
Related
- run into (meet by chance) — 'run into' also has the more basic meaning 'meet by chance'; this is the advanced sense.