Actually / to one's surprise (竟)

Structure Subject + 竟 + Verb (unexpected result)

竟 (jìng) is the monosyllabic, written form of 竟然 (jìngrán, HSK 4): it marks that something happened "to the point of" or "of all things", against expectation. It goes before the verb: 他竟一句话也没说就走了 = "he left without saying so much as a word". It feels more compact and refined than 竟然, typical of essays and the press. The variant 竟自 (jìngzì) adds an agent subject who goes ahead "to the extreme of" doing something on their own.

Examples

他tā竟jìng一yī句jù话huà也yě没méi说shuō就jiù走zǒu了le。
He left without saying so much as a word.
如rú此cǐ重zhòng要yào的de会huì议yì，他tā竟jìng忘wàng得de一yī干gān二èr净jìng。
Such an important meeting, and he actually forgot it entirely.
面miàn对duì质zhì疑yí，他tā竟jìng自zì一yī意yì孤gū行xíng。
Faced with objections, he went so far as to stubbornly do as he pleased.

Levels are indicative: they follow the standard Chinese Grammar Wiki (AllSet Learning) progression, not an official HSK 3.0 mapping. We never assign levels by eye.

This point and the other 370, with audio on every example, inside Wanyu.