How to say “luck” in 40 different languages
Every one of these is a word that turns up in ordinary speech, not a dictionary curiosity — the number beside it is where it ranks in that language.
- suerte/ˈsweɾte/ Spanish
- 운[un] Korean
- ভাগ্য/bʱaɡːo/ Bengali
- ഭാഗ്യം/b(ʱ)aːɡjɐm/ Malayalam
“luck” in Spanish: suerte · French: chance · Italian: fortuna · Korean: 운
It is commonest in Afrikaans, where geluk is the 211th most used word.
Luck in other languages, A to Z
- Afrikaans geluk/χəˈlœk/ luck, good luck #211
- Albanian fat[fat] #235
- Basque zorion/s̻oɾion/ good luck, luck, fortune #1,726
- Bengali ভাগ্য/bʱaɡːo/ #439
- Bosnian sretno/ˈsrɛtno/ luckily, with luck, having luck, with the… #1,001
- Bulgarian късмет[kɐˈsmɛt] fortune, luck, kismet #500
- Catalan sort[ˈsɔrt] #332
- Chinese 非洲/feɪ̯⁵⁵ ʈ͡ʂoʊ̯⁵⁵/ of bad luck #847
- Croatian sretno/ˈsrɛtno/ luckily, with luck, having luck, with the… #738
- Danish held[ˈhɛlˀ] luck, fortune #580
- Dutch geluk/ɣəˈlʏk/ luck, good luck #557
- English lucky/ˈlʌki/ Favoured by luck; fortunate; having good… #642
- Esperanto ŝancon/ˈʃant͡son/ #855
- Estonian õnn/ɤnː/ #804
- Finnish onnea/ˈonːeɑ/ good luck, best wishes #576
- French chance/ʃɑ̃s/ #261
- Galician fortuna/foɾˈtuna/ luck, fortune #1,999
- Greek τύχη/ˈti.çi/ fate, chance, luck #540
- Hungarian szerencsét[ˈsɛrɛnt͡ʃeːt] #1,064
- Icelandic heppni[ˈhɛhpnɪ] good luck, fortune #1,401
- Italian fortuna/forˈtu.na/ #577
- Korean 운[un] luck, fortune, fate #936
- Latvian nelaime/ˈnelaime/ misfortune, bad luck, ill-fortune #2,156
- Lithuanian nelaimė[nʲɛ¹ˈlɑˑɪmʲeː] misfortune, bad luck #1,658
- Malay nasib/ˈnasib/ fate, destiny, luck #654
- Malayalam ഭാഗ്യം/b(ʱ)aːɡjɐm/ #258
- Norwegian hell/ˈhɛl/ #2,183
- Persian شانسی/ʃɒːnsiː/ random, by luck #1,771
- Polish powodzenia/pɔ.vɔˈd͡zɛ.ɲa/ good luck #983
- Romanian noroc[noˈrok] luck; good fortune #486
- Russian удачи[ʊˈdat͡ɕɪ] good luck! #947
- Serbian sretno/ˈsrɛtno/ luckily, with luck, having luck, with the… #1,648
- Slovenian sreča/srèːt͡ʃa/ #535
- Spanish suerte/ˈsweɾte/ luck, fortune #334
- Tagalog suwerte/suˈeɾte/ luck; good luck #1,665
- Tamil சனி/tʃɐniː/ bad luck, disaster #740
- Telugu అదృష్టము/ad̪ɻ̍ʂʈamu/ fortune, luck, chance, fate #593
- Ukrainian удачі[ʊˈdat͡ʃʲi] good luck! best of luck! #2,180
- Urdu بھاگ/bʱɑːɡ/ destiny, fortune, luck #730
- Vietnamese phúc[fʊwk͡p̚˧˦] good fortune; good luck; happiness; bliss;… #769
The speaker reads the word in the voice the LangX app uses for that language — synthesised, not a recording of a native speaker, so treat it as a guide. A row without a button has no reading we are free to use, or none we trust, yet. Voices for Bengali (google (bn_BD), CC BY-SA 4.0), Catalan (upc_ona (ca_ES), CC BY-SA 4.0), Estonian (news (et_EE), CC BY 4.0), Slovenian (artur (sl_SI), CC BY 4.0) and Vietnamese (vais1000 (vi_VN), CC BY 4.0).
Knowing the word is the easy half.
Using it with someone who speaks the language is the half that sticks.