没想到 in Context

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没想到

Usage 1 - "to have never imagined, not considered, didn’t expect": 

Sentence:

没想到十分钟以后你又回来了。 

English:

I never imagined after 10 minutes you’d come back again.

Sentence:

我没想到桌子这么旧。   

English:

I didn’t think the table is so old.

Sentence:

没想到你还害怕虫子。 

English:

Never thought you are still afraid of bugs. 

Top-Down Words:

害怕 hàipà - afraid
虫子 chóngzi - bug, insect

*Sentence:

没想到，臭臭和人拍照还要收钱。  

English:

I never imagined Chouchou could make money taking pictures with people.

Top-Down Words:

收钱 shōuqián - make money

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Member Comments from 2019-mid-2020

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Ric Santos

Following the lead of 听不到 and other verb+result verbs, I just thought that 没想到 could also describe someone's level of thinking that is so limited that made it impossible to reach a desired behavior , or never arrive to such a result for whatever reason. An example sentence is " A very self-centered contagiously sick person 没想到 that going back to work prematurely might perhaps infect his co-workers in the office." is this usage correct?
and Instead of using 没想到 , could 他想不到...be used in the example sentence ? Sorry, for this question, but I was just thinking that some results might never be reached or arrived at. I'm appreciating how the Chinese language can express these verb+results very nicely that one can see the sentence very graphically.

Mandarin Blueprint 

没想到 doesn't imply anything about capability. It merely says that something didn't occur to the speaker. You're right in thinking that 他想不到 would mean that "thinking 想" "cannot result 不" in "achieving/arriving/success 到," and therefore speaks more to the capability of "他."

Ric Santos

Thanks for the clarification.

MB Team

Here's the link to where Phil and Luke talked about this comment in the Mandarin Blueprint Podcast: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GiYrfenj6YQ&t=4008s