竟然
Meaning
- unexpectedly
- to one's surprise
- in spite of everything
Example sentence
买票的人龙竟然那么长!
The queue for buying tickets was unbelievably long.
Characters in 竟然
- 竟 jìng unexpectedly, actually; to finish
- 然 rán so, thus; forms adverbs, like English -ly
竟 unexpectedly plus 然, so. 竟 gives 究竟 and 毕竟; it marks surprise at what follows.