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Luck and lucky

We use the noun luck and the adjective lucky to talk about good things happening by chance, and not because of our own efforts:

  • A: Helen won first prize in an online competition, a two-week holiday in Italy.
  • B: Oh, that’s nice! I never have any luck. I never win anything.
  • It was a lucky coincidence that the train was late, because I was also late getting to the station.
warning

Luck and lucky do not mean the same as happiness and happy:

  • The most important thing in life is to find happiness.
  • Not: … is to find luck.
  • My grandparents had a very happy marriage. They were together for 54 years.
  • Not: … a very lucky marriage.

Luck is an uncountable noun, so we do not use it with the indefinite article a/an. We use expressions such as some, a bit of or a lot of to express amounts of luck:

  • I’ve had a lot of luck with jobs over the years.
  • Not: I’ve had a luck …

When we talk about luck in general, we don’t use the definite article the:

  • A lot of good things in life happen through luck rather than through planning.
  • Not: … through the luck …
See also
  • When do we use articles?

Good luck!, (The) best of luck! and I wish you luck! are common expressions we use to say that we hope good things will happen to someone. They are followed by with:

  • A: I’ve got my driving test tomorrow.
  • B: Good luck!
  • A: Thanks.
  • Best of luck with your job interview!
  • Not: Best luck.