By chance means without any plan, through luck or coincidence. People use it about things that happened unexpectedly, such as a meeting or a discovery: I met my business partner by chance at a conference. The phrase is neutral and works in both speech and writing.
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meet/find/discover + something + by chance; by pure chance; question + by any chance? (polite)
- I found my favourite café by chance when I got lost in the old town.
- By pure chance, my new manager went to the same school as me.
- Are you free on Thursday evening, by any chance?
What changed
First versionI deleted your email by chance, so could you send it again?
RevisionI deleted your email by accident, so could you send it again?
English separates coincidences from mistakes. If you did something without meaning to, by mistake, say by accident or accidentally. By chance is about circumstances coming together, and it sounds odd for a slip like deleting an email. The only change is by chance to by accident.
By any chance softens a polite question or request, a bit like do you happen to: Do you have a phone charger, by any chance? By chance without any describes something that has already happened: We met by chance.
Your turn
The two sisters didn't discuss their holidays, but they booked the same hotel in Rome completely ___.
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by chance — The sisters didn't plan it together, so booking the same hotel was a coincidence: by chance. On purpose means deliberately, and you can't deliberately choose the same hotel without discussing the trip.
Think of a useful contact or discovery that came about without any planning. Write a sentence with by chance: say where it happened and how it turned out to be useful.
I met my current landlord by chance at a friend's birthday party, and a week later he offered me a cheap flat.
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