occur to

phraseB2Not compared — the two pools are counted one word at a time, so a phrase has no score

For something to occur to you is for the idea to arrive in your head. It was not there and now it is.

The grammar puts the idea in the subject position, so it occurred to me that we had met before. That construction is fixed. The phrase very often appears in the negative as a mild reproach, since saying that it never occurred to somebody means they should have thought of it. Cross your mind does the same job and is slightly more casual.

Definitions of occur to

1phraseoccur toTo come into somebody's mind as an idea.B2
“It may occur to her later that the story does not fit.”

Practised in A Man Called Ove, Thinking & Memory

First appears in chapter 8 of A Man Called Ove.

Practise this word

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occur to

phraseB2Not compared — the two pools are counted one word at a time, so a phrase has no score

For something to occur to you is for the idea to arrive in your head. It was not there and now it is.

Definitions of occur to

1phraseoccur toTo come into somebody's mind as an idea.B2
“It may occur to her later that the story does not fit.”

Practised in A Man Called Ove, Thinking & Memory

First appears in chapter 8 of A Man Called Ove.

Practise this word