Is there an expression or idiom for the situation when you say something and then the opposite happens?
For example I say “Today I don't have so much work.” and then something happens and you have loads of work for the rest of the day.
Learn English – n expression for when you say one thing and the opposite happens
idiom-requestphrase-request
Related Solutions
You lose your place as in
I lose my place rather easily when reading, i'll end up missing some lines which have important info in them.
You can lose your place two different ways: you can lose track of what word you are on at any point, or you can lose track of what line you are on when moving from one line to the next.
About forgetting what you've just read because you lose focus or something cut you away from the story I think you can say lose track of the story like the line as you mentioned in your note. When you lose track of a story, you forget it. As in,
You’re reading an article online. After a few seconds, you can’t remember what you’re reading. You’ve lost track.
One idea that comes to my mind is the verb jinx.
We often say that someone jinxes something when something bad happens after that person has made a related comment. For example, in this blog, a blogger writes about tornadoes. On the same day the post was published, one commenter said:
I think you jinxed us. Currently have several tornadoes moving through our area.
Sometimes, though, this phrase is used when a comment is made about how things are going well, and then the situation changes after the comment is made. For example, in a newspaper article about a baseball game:
Manager Kirk Gibson, meanwhile, thought perhaps a reporter was to blame. “I think you jinxed us,” Gibson said. “You were the one talking about how good the defense was playing, right? You should keep your mouth shut.”
The phrase was also explained on an English message board:
When someone says, "You jinxed me," it means you said something, and made it so it might happen. For example:
You: I can't believe we got locked out of the house.
Friend: At least it's not raining!
[it begins to rain]
You: Ugh, you jinxed it!
So, your example about the upcoming raises might happen like this:
Cody: We don't have many customers these days. I hope our boss will not cancel the year-end bonus.
Donovan: Shhh! Don't jinx us!
Note: This is fairly common parlance in the US; I'm not sure about other parts of the world.
Best Answer
"Speak too soon" is a suitable way of describing the scenario.
Tetsujin is correct that irony/ironic is NOT suitable, but strictly speaking coincidence/bad-luck/Murphy's law are not correct either. Bad-luck and Murphy's Law are indicative that the things you didn't expect to happen DID happen, and they have negative consequences. Your question could be positive or negative, and "speak to soon" covers both.
Speak too soon is usually taken to mean the OPPOSITE of expectation, like you describe in your example. You tell someone you have no work - oops, you spoke to soon and now you have too much work, for example.
Another alternative expression would be that you were too premature - e.g. if you celebrate winning a competition before finding out for sure you were the winner your celebrations are premature.