{"id":6400,"date":"2020-04-11T21:45:11","date_gmt":"2020-04-11T21:45:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/linguaholic.com\/linguablog\/?p=6400"},"modified":"2023-04-08T19:14:34","modified_gmt":"2023-04-08T19:14:34","slug":"good-luck-in-japanese","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/linguaholic.com\/linguablog\/good-luck-in-japanese\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Say &#8220;Good Luck&#8221; in Japanese \u2014 All You Need to Know"},"content":{"rendered":"<style>img#mv-trellis-img-1::before{padding-top:150%; }img#mv-trellis-img-1{display:block;}<\/style><p>How do you say &ldquo;Good Luck&rdquo; in Japanese? Well, you can, but you don&rsquo;t.<\/p>\n<p>If that doesn&rsquo;t make sense, stick around as I explain in depth all the details behind this difficult to translate phrase.<\/p>\n<p>Difficult? Really? For any English speaker, this probably seems as improbable as it does absurd.<\/p>\n<p>It&rsquo;s such a common, almost ubiquitous, phrase in English that it seems really strange that there&rsquo;s no true equivalent in some languages.<\/p>\n<p>Well, when it comes to <a class=\"wpil_keyword_link\" href=\"https:\/\/linguaholic.com\/linguablog\/study-japanese\/\" title=\"Japanese\" data-wpil-keyword-link=\"linked\">Japanese<\/a>, you&rsquo;ll discover that there are many things that can&rsquo;t be translated easily between them (try to translate &ldquo;yoroshiku&rdquo; to English&mdash;I&rsquo;ll wait).<\/p>\n<p>Still, we can make some generalizations to cover you in <i>most<\/i> situations. Let&rsquo;s start simple.<\/p>\n<p><noscript><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-6744\" src=\"https:\/\/linguaholic.com\/linguablog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/Good-Luck-in-Japanese-Pin.png\" alt=\"Good Luck in Japanese Pin\" width=\"1000\" height=\"1500\" srcset=\"https:\/\/linguaholic.com\/linguablog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/Good-Luck-in-Japanese-Pin.png 320w, https:\/\/linguaholic.com\/linguablog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/Good-Luck-in-Japanese-Pin-200x300.png 200w, https:\/\/linguaholic.com\/linguablog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/Good-Luck-in-Japanese-Pin-683x1024.png 683w, https:\/\/linguaholic.com\/linguablog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/Good-Luck-in-Japanese-Pin-768x1152.png 768w, https:\/\/linguaholic.com\/linguablog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/Good-Luck-in-Japanese-Pin-561x842.png 561w, https:\/\/linguaholic.com\/linguablog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/Good-Luck-in-Japanese-Pin-364x546.png 364w, https:\/\/linguaholic.com\/linguablog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/Good-Luck-in-Japanese-Pin-728x1092.png 728w, https:\/\/linguaholic.com\/linguablog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/Good-Luck-in-Japanese-Pin-608x912.png 608w, https:\/\/linguaholic.com\/linguablog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/Good-Luck-in-Japanese-Pin-758x1137.png 758w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1000px) 100vw, 1000px\" data-pin-media=\"https:\/\/linguaholic.com\/linguablog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/Good-Luck-in-Japanese-Pin.png\"><\/noscript><img loading=\"eager\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-6744 eager-load\" src=\"data:image\/svg+xml,%3Csvg%20xmlns='http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg'%20viewBox='0%200%201000%201500'%3E%3Crect%20width='1000'%20height='1500'%20style='fill:%23e3e3e3'\/%3E%3C\/svg%3E\" alt=\"Good Luck in Japanese Pin\" width=\"1000\" height=\"1500\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1000px) 100vw, 1000px\" data-pin-media=\"https:\/\/linguaholic.com\/linguablog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/Good-Luck-in-Japanese-Pin.png\" id=\"mv-trellis-img-1\" data-src=\"https:\/\/linguaholic.com\/linguablog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/Good-Luck-in-Japanese-Pin.png\" data-srcset=\"https:\/\/linguaholic.com\/linguablog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/Good-Luck-in-Japanese-Pin.png 320w, https:\/\/linguaholic.com\/linguablog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/Good-Luck-in-Japanese-Pin-200x300.png 200w, https:\/\/linguaholic.com\/linguablog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/Good-Luck-in-Japanese-Pin-683x1024.png 683w, https:\/\/linguaholic.com\/linguablog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/Good-Luck-in-Japanese-Pin-768x1152.png 768w, https:\/\/linguaholic.com\/linguablog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/Good-Luck-in-Japanese-Pin-561x842.png 561w, https:\/\/linguaholic.com\/linguablog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/Good-Luck-in-Japanese-Pin-364x546.png 364w, https:\/\/linguaholic.com\/linguablog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/Good-Luck-in-Japanese-Pin-728x1092.png 728w, https:\/\/linguaholic.com\/linguablog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/Good-Luck-in-Japanese-Pin-608x912.png 608w, https:\/\/linguaholic.com\/linguablog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/Good-Luck-in-Japanese-Pin-758x1137.png 758w\" data-svg=\"1\" data-trellis-processed=\"1\"><br>\n&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2>How do you say &ldquo;good luck&rdquo; in Japanese?<\/h2>\n<p><b>The noun, &ldquo;good luck,&rdquo; can be translated as &#24184;&#36939; (<i>ko-un<\/i>). The literal, but very uncommon way to wish someone &ldquo;Good luck!&rdquo; would be &#24184;&#36939;&#12434;&#31048;&#12427; (<i>ko-un o inoru<\/i>). The natural way would either be &#38929;&#24373;&#12387;&#12390; (<i>ganbatte<\/i>), which carries a sense of &ldquo;do your best!&rdquo; or you can say, &#27671;&#12434;&#12388;&#12369;&#12390; (<i>ki o tsukete<\/i>) which carries the sense of &ldquo;be careful.&rdquo;<\/b><br>\n&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2>&ldquo;Good Luck&rdquo; the noun<\/h2>\n<p>&ldquo;Good luck&rdquo; as a noun can be easily translated as &#24184;&#36939;, which is written phonetically as &#12371;&#12358;&#12358;&#12435; and pronounced <i>ko-un<\/i>.<\/p>\n<p>The first character in this word is &#24184;, which is written in hiragana as &#12371;&#12358; and pronounced &ldquo;ko.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>This one character means happiness, or blessing, or fortune. The second character is &#36939;, written as &#12358;&#12435; and pronounced &ldquo;un.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>This character carries the sense of, well, &ldquo;carry.&rdquo; Also, &ldquo;fate,&rdquo; &ldquo;progress,&rdquo; &ldquo;transport,&rdquo; and &ldquo;destiny.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>So, together these give us the meaning of &ldquo;progressing fortune.&rdquo; Sounds like good luck to me!<\/p>\n<p>Let&rsquo;s see how you might use it in a sentence with two examples:<\/p>\n<div class=\"content-box-grey\"><strong>&#33391;&#12356;&#12505;&#12499;&#12540;&#12471;&#12483;&#12479;&#12540;&#12364;&#35211;&#12388;&#12369;&#12425;&#12428;&#12390;&#24184;&#36939;&#12384;&#12387;&#12383;&#12290;<\/strong><br>\n<i>Yoi-bebiishittaa ga mitsukerarete koun datta.<\/i><br>\nI was lucky that I was able to find a good babysitter.<\/div>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<div class=\"content-box-grey\"><strong>&#24444;&#22899;&#12399;&#38563;&#12398;&#20154;&#12398;&#24184;&#36939;&#12434;&#22956;&#12435;&#12391;&#12356;&#12383;&#12290;<\/strong><br>\n<i>Kanojo wa tonari-no-hito-koun wo netandeita.<\/i><br>\nShe was jealous of her neighbor&rsquo;s good fortune.<\/div>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2>Using koun in a sentence<\/h2>\n<p>If we wanted to wish &ldquo;koun&rdquo; on someone, we might say it as:<\/p>\n<div class=\"content-box-grey\"><strong>&#24184;&#36939;&#12434;&#31048;&#12427;<\/strong><br>\n<i>koun o inoru<\/i><br>\nI wish you good luck.<\/div>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&#31048;&#12427; can also be written as &#12356;&#12398;&#12427; and is pronounced <i>inoru<\/i>. This word means &ldquo;to pray&rdquo; or &ldquo;to wish.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>Of course, if you wanted to use this, you&rsquo;d need to be aware of the need to conjugate the &#12427; at the end.<\/p>\n<p>All that said, this expression isn&rsquo;t used very frequently, and would be more common to very, very literally wish good luck upon someone, rather than in the causal way &ldquo;good luck&rdquo; is used most commonly in English.<br>\n&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2>Good luck, the Japanese way<\/h2>\n<p>Alright, that&rsquo;s enough beating around the bush! So far, we&rsquo;ve made it clear that there&rsquo;s no perfect way to express &ldquo;good luck&rdquo; in Japanese.<\/p>\n<p>The literal expression just doesn&rsquo;t have the same feeling as in English.<\/p>\n<p>But surely Japanese people still like to wish each other well, right? So, what phrase or phrases best captures the same motivation?<\/p>\n<p>The first, and most common, answer is &#38929;&#24373;&#12387;&#12390;, pronounced <i>ganbatte<\/i>.<\/p>\n<p>This is a conjugation of &#38929;&#24373;&#12427; (<i>ganbaru<\/i>), the base form, but we&rsquo;ll get into the conjugations and their nuances a little further on.<\/p>\n<p><i>Ganbaru<\/i> literally means to persevere or persist. That said, it gets used in a sense that we wouldn&rsquo;t use the word &ldquo;persevere&rdquo; in English.<\/p>\n<p>Don&rsquo;t worry, we&rsquo;re gonna lay out what all that means in the rest of this article.<\/p>\n<p>Ganbatte is your everyday, casual expression that roughly conveys the feeling of &ldquo;good luck!&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>In reality, it&rsquo;s closer to &ldquo;do your best,&rdquo; or &ldquo;go gettem!&rdquo; but the motivation and feeling is similar to &ldquo;good luck.&rdquo;<br>\n&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2>Ganbatte in detail<\/h2>\n<p><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/linguaholic.com\/linguablog\/how-many-kanji-to-be-fluent\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Let&rsquo;s take a quick look at the kanji<\/a><\/strong> (Chinese characters) that make up the word &ldquo;ganbaru.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>The first is &#38929; (<i>gan<\/i>), meaning something like &ldquo;stubborn.&rdquo; The kanji itself is made up of &#20803; and &#38913;, which mean &ldquo;origin&rdquo; and &ldquo;page&rdquo; respectively.<\/p>\n<p>While I could find no sources on the etymological origin of this kanji, perhaps we can imagine the original page of history being conservative, stuck in the past&mdash;in a word, stubborn.<\/p>\n<p><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/linguaholic.com\/linguablog\/japanese-alphabets\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">The second kanji<\/a><\/strong> is &#24373; (<i>ha<\/i>&mdash;it becomes <i>ba<\/i> when combined with <i>gan<\/i> due to a phonetic shift called <i>rendaku<\/i>), which means &ldquo;lengthen&rdquo; or &ldquo;stretch.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>This one is made up of &#24339; and&#38263; which mean &ldquo;bow&rdquo; and &ldquo;long\/leader&rdquo; respectively.<\/p>\n<p>This makes a lot of sense, as we pull on a bow to lengthen it&mdash;you can almost picture it.<\/p>\n<p>That said, in the original Chinese only the &#24339; part of the character carried semantic meaning.<\/p>\n<p>All this is interesting, of course, but the reality is that it has nothing to do with the origins of the word! &#38929;&#24373;&#12427; is an example of <i>ateji<\/i>, which is when characters are chosen for their sound, not for their meaning.<\/p>\n<p>It&rsquo;s just a bit of luck that the kanji chosen also seem to help us remember the word.<br>\n&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2>Origins of Ganbaru<\/h2>\n<p>There&rsquo;s two leading theories on where this word comes from.<\/p>\n<p>The first is that it came from &#30524;&#24373; which was pronounced the same way, but meant, more or less, &ldquo;to keep your eye on something.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>How the sense shifted from &ldquo;keep watch&rdquo; to &ldquo;keep going!&rdquo; is a bit uncertain, but it seems that sometime in the 18th century the meaning shifted.<\/p>\n<p>The second origin story comes from the archaic phrase &#25105;&#12395;&#24373;&#12427;. Here we have &#25105; pronounced as <i>ga<\/i> and meaning &ldquo;I&rdquo; and &#24373;&#12427; pronounced <i>haru<\/i> and just meaning to stretch, as above.<\/p>\n<p>This phrase meant &ldquo;to be self-assertive and have your own way.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>Eventually, <i>ganiharu<\/i> became <i>ganbaru<\/i> and the sense of the word solidified into &ldquo;persevere.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>Either way, the word started out with a bit of a negative connotation, implying &ldquo;stubbornness,&rdquo; or &ldquo;obstinacy.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>However, since the Edo period, and right up until today, it carries a positive sense of perseverance and endurance.<br>\n&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2>How to Say Good Luck in Japanese &mdash; Examples<\/h2>\n<p>If you want to tell someone &ldquo;good luck&rdquo; with the sense of &ldquo;good luck, you can do it!&rdquo; you&rsquo;ve got four different version to choose from.<br>\nNote: Each of these can mean &ldquo;Good luck,&rdquo; &ldquo;Give it a try,&rdquo; or &ldquo;Do your best,&rdquo; depending on context.<\/p>\n<div class=\"content-box-grey\"><strong>&#38929;&#24373;&#12387;&#12390;<\/strong><br>\n<i>ganbatte<\/i><br>\n&ndash; This is the standard form. Pretty safe in most situations.<\/div>\n<div class=\"content-box-grey\"><strong>&#38929;&#24373;&#12387;&#12390;&#12397;<\/strong><br>\n<i>ganbatte-ne<\/i><br>\n&ndash; This is more relaxed and more casual. In some cases it can be seen as more feminine, but not always.<br>\n&nbsp;<br>\n<strong>&#38929;&#24373;&#12387;&#12390;&#12367;&#12384;&#12373;&#12356;<\/strong><br>\n&nbsp;<br>\n<i>ganbatte-kudasai<\/i><br>\n&ndash; This is the polite version. Use this one with people you don&rsquo;t know well.<br>\n&nbsp;<br>\n<strong>&#38929;&#24373;&#12428;<\/strong><br>\n<i>ganbare<\/i><br>\n&ndash; This is a command! Use this one primarily at sporting events, shouted at the top of your lungs.<\/div>\n<p>&nbsp;<br>\nFor the sake of completeness (and preparing you for seeing this word in the wild), I&rsquo;ll share three more uses. These don&rsquo;t really mean &ldquo;good luck,&rdquo; but they&rsquo;re useful to know.<\/p>\n<div class=\"content-box-grey\"><strong>&#38929;&#24373;&#12427;<\/strong><br>\n<i>ganbaru<\/i><br>\n&ldquo;I&rsquo;ll do my best.&rdquo;<br>\n&ldquo;I&rsquo;ll give it a shot.&rdquo;<\/div>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<div class=\"content-box-grey\"><strong>&#38929;&#24373;&#12426;&#12414;&#12377;<\/strong><br>\n<i>ganbarimas<\/i><br>\nSame as &#38929;&#24373;&#12427;, but more polite.<\/div>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<div class=\"content-box-grey\"><strong>&#38929;&#24373;&#12426;&#12414;&#12375;&#12423;&#12358;<\/strong><br>\n<i>ganbarimasho<\/i><br>\n&ldquo;Let&rsquo;s do our best!&rdquo;<br>\n&ldquo;Let&rsquo;s try it!&rdquo;<\/div>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<div class=\"content-box-grey\"><strong>&#38929;&#24373;&#12429;&#12358;<\/strong><br>\n<i>ganbaro<\/i><br>\nSame as &#38929;&#24373;&#12426;&#12414;&#12375;&#12423;&#12358;, but more intense.<\/div>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<div class=\"content-box-grey\"><strong>&#38929;&#24373;&#12387;&#12383;&#12397;<\/strong><br>\n<i>ganbatta-ne<\/i><br>\n&ldquo;You did your best.&rdquo;<\/div>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>There are other ways to translate and use &#38929;&#24373;&#12427;, but this article is about how to translate &ldquo;good luck,&rdquo; so we&rsquo;re really only focusing on the &ldquo;good luck aspect of &#38929;&#24373;&#12427; here.<br>\n&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2>How to use &#38929;&#24373;&#12427; in a sentence<\/h2>\n<div class=\"content-box-grey\"><strong>&#22823;&#19976;&#22827;&#12384;&#12424;&#12290;&#38929;&#24373;&#12387;&#12390;&#65281;<\/strong><br>\n<i>Daijobu-yo. Ganbatte!<\/i><br>\nYou&rsquo;ll be fine. Good luck!<\/div>\n<div class=\"content-box-grey\"><strong>&#12486;&#12473;&#12488;&#38929;&#24373;&#12387;&#12390;&#65281;<\/strong><br>\n<i>Testo, ganbatte!<\/i><br>\nGood luck on your test!<br>\n&nbsp;<br>\n<strong>&#38929;&#24373;&#12427;&#12375;&#12363;&#12394;&#12356;&#12424;&#12397;&#12290;<\/strong><br>\n<i>Ganbaru shikanai-yone<\/i><br>\nAll you can do is try your best.<\/div>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2><b>Formal ways to say good luck in Japanese<\/b><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">While there is no direct translation of &ldquo;good luck&rdquo; in Japanese, formal variants of the phrase include the common &ldquo;ganbatte kudasai&rdquo; (&#38929;&#24373;&#12387;&#12390;&#12367;&#12384;&#12373;&#12356;), and the less common &ldquo;gokoun o oinori itashimasu&rdquo; (&#12372;&#24184;&#36939;&#12434;&#12362;&#31048;&#12426;&#12356;&#12383;&#12375;&#12414;&#12377;).&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">When you are speaking with someone older than you or higher up in a company in Japan, you are going to want to use formal Japanese.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Formal Japanese should also always be used in the workplace and when speaking with customers.&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Using the wrong form of certain words can come off as unprofessional and offensive, so you must be careful with which words you use in certain situations.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">When in doubt, stick to formal Japanese until you are told not to!<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h3><b>Ganbatte Kudasai &ndash; The formal version of &ldquo;good luck&rdquo;<\/b><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The phrase &ldquo;ganbatte kudasai&rdquo; is the most common way to wish someone luck using formal Japanese. This phrase is acceptable to use toward elders, higher-ranking employees, bosses, and customers.&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Ganbatte (&#38929;&#24373;&#12387;&#12390;) means &ldquo;do your best&rdquo;, because hard work is valued much higher than luck in Japan.&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Kudasai (&#12367;&#12384;&#12373;&#12356;) means &ldquo;please&rdquo;, which makes the phrase formal. This is the most direct translation of a formal &ldquo;good luck&rdquo;.&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In most conversations, you can simply say &ldquo;ganbatte kudasai&rdquo; without any specifications, because the context should be clear.&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">If you are trying to convey a specific meaning, you can add context to the phrase. This is most common in texts or emails, but it&rsquo;s fine to use it in conversation as well.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Examples:<\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"content-box-grey\">\n<p><strong>&#20250;&#35696;&#12391;&#38929;&#24373;&#12387;&#12390;&#12367;&#12384;&#12373;&#12356;<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Kaigi de ganbatte kudasai<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Good luck in your meeting!<\/span><\/p>\n<h2>&nbsp;<\/h2>\n<p><strong>&#26032;&#12375;&#12356;&#12362;&#20181;&#20107;&#12395;&#38929;&#24373;&#12387;&#12390;&#12367;&#12384;&#12373;&#12356;<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Atarashii oshigoto ni ganbatte kudasai<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Good luck at your new job!<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h3><b>Gokoun o oinori itashimasu &ndash; I will pray for your good fortune\/Good luck<\/b><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A different way to wish someone good luck in Japan is to wish them good fortune by saying &ldquo;gokoun o oinori itashimasu&rdquo; (&#12372;&#24184;&#36939;&#12434;&#12362;&#31048;&#12426;&#12356;&#12383;&#12375;&#12414;&#12377;).&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This is a slightly less common phrase than &ldquo;ganbatte kudasai&rdquo;, but it is a formal and kind thing to say to a superior or elder.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Koun (&#24184;&#36939;) means fortune or luck. The &ldquo;go&rdquo; at the beginning is a particle in Japanese that adds formality to the word. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It is less common to add this, but would denote the highest level of formality to the phrase.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Inori (&#31048;&#12426;) means to pray, and adding the &ldquo;o&rdquo; to the beginning to form &ldquo;oinori&rdquo; adds formality to the word.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Itashimasu (&#12356;&#12383;&#12375;&#12414;&#12377;) means to do something, and is the formal version of masu (&#12414;&#12377;).&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Let&rsquo;s look at some ways that this phrase is used.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Examples:<\/p>\n<div class=\"content-box-grey\">\n<p><strong>&#20250;&#35696;&#12391;&#12372;&#24184;&#36939;&#12434;&#12362;&#31048;&#12426;&#12356;&#12383;&#12375;&#12414;&#12377;<\/strong><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Kaigi de gokoun o oinori itashimasu<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I will pray for good luck in your meeting!<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<div class=\"content-box-grey\">\n<p><strong>&#26032;&#12375;&#12356;&#12362;&#20181;&#20107;&#12395;&#24184;&#36939;&#12434;&#12362;&#31048;&#12426;&#12356;&#12383;&#12375;&#12414;&#12377;<\/strong><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Atarashii oshigoto ni koun o oinori itashimasu<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I&rsquo;ll pray for your good luck at your new job!<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It&rsquo;s important to note that this &ldquo;pray&rdquo; is not necessarily religious. It is a hope for someone else&rsquo;s success, and expressing that you will be thinking of them.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2>&nbsp;<\/h2>\n<h2>Take care of be careful in Japanese<\/h2>\n<p>What if you want to wish someone &ldquo;Good luck&rdquo; in the sense of &ldquo;Take care,&rdquo; or &ldquo;Be careful&rdquo;? For that you&rsquo;ll use the set phrase &#27671;&#12434;&#20184;&#12369;&#12390; (<i>ki-o-tsukete<\/i>).<\/p>\n<p>This word is made up of three parts. First, the kanji &#27671;, which in this context means something like &ldquo;spirit&rdquo; or more so, &ldquo;health.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>Next is,&#12434; which is a grammatical particle which just indicates that the &#27671; is the object of the phrase.<\/p>\n<p>Finally, there&rsquo;s &#20184;&#12369;&#12390;, which in this context sorta means &ldquo;keep an eye on.&rdquo; So, &ldquo;keep an eye on your health.&rdquo; Makes sense.<\/p>\n<p>This is the second most common way to say &ldquo;good luck,&rdquo; so let&rsquo;s review a couple of sample sentences.<\/p>\n<div class=\"content-box-grey\"><strong>&#39080;&#37034;&#12434;&#12402;&#12363;&#12394;&#12356;&#12424;&#12358;&#12395;&#27671;&#12434;&#12388;&#12369;&#12390;&#12367;&#12384;&#12373;&#12356;&#12290;<\/strong><br>\n<i>kaze o hikanai-yoni ki-o-tsukete-kudasai.<\/i><br>\nLook out that you don&rsquo;t catch cold, please.<\/div>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<div class=\"content-box-grey\"><strong>&#12381;&#12358;&#12289;&#12356;&#12356;&#12431;&#12424;&#12290;&#12356;&#12387;&#12390;&#12425;&#12387;&#12375;&#12419;&#12356;&#12290;&#12391;&#12418;&#36939;&#36578;&#12395;&#12399;&#27671;&#12434;&#20184;&#12369;&#12390;&#12397;&#12290;<\/strong><br>\n<i>So, ii-wayo. Itterrashai. Demo, unten-niwa ki-o-tsukete-ne.<\/i><br>\nOh, OK. See you. But drive carefully.<\/div>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Let&rsquo;s cover two more, somewhat less common (but by no means <i>un<\/i>common) expressions.<\/p>\n<p>If you want to say &ldquo;Best of luck to you,&rdquo; to someone you might not see again, give them a &#12362;&#20803;&#27671;&#12391; (<i>o-genki-de<\/i>)!<\/p>\n<p>If you want to wish someone good luck with their health, as in &ldquo;Get better,&rdquo; or &ldquo;Stay safe in these dangerous times,&rdquo; you can say &#12362;&#22823;&#20107;&#12395; (<i>o-daiji-ni<\/i>).<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2><b>How to say &ldquo;lucky&rdquo; in Japanese<\/b><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In Japanese, &ldquo;lucky&rdquo; can be expressed casually by using the same word in English &ldquo;rakki&rdquo; (&#12521;&#12483;&#12461;&#12540;).&nbsp; <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A bit more formally, you can use the phrase &ldquo;un ga ii desu&rdquo; (&#36939;&#12364;&#12356;&#12356;&#12391;&#12377;) meaning &ldquo;your\/my\/their luck is good&rdquo;.&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The phrase &ldquo;rakki\/lakki&rdquo; (you want to say it with a soft &ldquo;r&rdquo;) is most often said casually by the younger generation in Japan.&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This is a phrase always written in katakana, because it comes from the English word &ldquo;lucky&rdquo;. English phrases are almost always written exclusively in katakana.&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">&ldquo;Rakki!&rdquo; is most often spoken as a standalone, excited utterance. If you want to add some context to it, here are a few examples:<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Examples:<\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"content-box-grey\">\n<p><strong>&#24481;&#31070;&#31844;&#12399;&#12521;&#12483;&#12461;&#12540;&#12384;&#12397;<\/strong><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Omikuji wa rakki da ne?<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">That paper fortune was lucky, wasn&rsquo;t it?<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<div class=\"content-box-grey\">\n<p><strong>&#24444;&#22899;&#12399;&#12521;&#12483;&#12461;&#12540;&#12384;&#12397;&hellip;&#33391;&#12356;&#24444;&#27663;&#12364;&#12356;&#12414;&#12377;<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Kanojo wa rakki da&hellip; yoi kareshi ga imasu<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">She is so lucky&hellip; She has a good boyfriend.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2><b>That&rsquo;s so lucky! &#36939;&#12364;&#12356;&#12356;&#12391;&#12377; in Japanese<\/b><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">If you want to speak a bit more formally, or without the use of the English slang &ldquo;rakki&rdquo;, you can use the phrase &ldquo;un ga ii desu&rdquo; (&#36939;&#12364;&#12356;&#12356;&#12391;&#12377;). <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This translates to &ldquo;It&rsquo;s lucky\/It has good luck&rdquo;.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This phrase is often used to say someone has or had good luck in a specific situation, and not necessarily to say someone is lucky.&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The following examples are ways you can use the word for luck &ldquo;un&rdquo; (&#36939;).<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Examples:<\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"content-box-grey\">\n<p><strong>&#36939;&#12398;&#33391;&#12356;&#12402;&#12392;<\/strong><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Un no yoi hito<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A lucky person<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<div class=\"content-box-grey\">\n<p><strong>&#12394;&#12435;&#12391;&#12356;&#12388;&#12418;&#12381;&#12435;&#12394;&#12395;&#36939;&#12364;&#12356;&#12356;&#12398;&#65311;<\/strong><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Nande itsumo sonna ni un ga ii no?<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Why are you always so lucky?<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<div class=\"content-box-grey\">\n<p><strong>&#31169;&#12399;&#12392;&#12390;&#12418;&#36939;&#12364;&#33391;&#12363;&#12387;&#12383;<\/strong><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Watashi wa totemo un ga yokatta<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I had very good luck\/I was very lucky<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2><b>How to say &ldquo;all the best&rdquo; in Japanese<\/b><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">If you want to wish someone well in Japanese, you can use the phrase &ldquo;koun o inorimasu&rdquo; (&#24184;&#36939;&#12434;&#31048;&#12426;&#12414;&#12377;) to pray for their good fortune, or ogenki de ne (&#12362;&#20803;&#27671;&#12391;&#12397;) to tell them to take care.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Which phrase to use in Japanese is, as usual, very situational. There is no direct translation of &ldquo;all the best&rdquo;, so what to use depends on the reason you are saying it.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Koun o inorimasu translates to &ldquo;I will pray for your fortune&rdquo;, but can also mean &ldquo;good luck&rdquo;. This is perhaps the best way to translate &ldquo;I wish you all the best&rdquo; in Japanese.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This phrase is typically used when you won&rsquo;t see someone for period of time. Situations commonly associated with this phrase include leaving for a new job, moving to a new country, or starting a family.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Examples:<\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"content-box-grey\">\n<p><strong>&#30000;&#20013;&#12373;&#12435;&#12392;&#24687;&#23376;&#12373;&#12435;&#12395;&#24184;&#36939;&#12434;&#31048;&#12426;&#12414;&#12377;<\/strong><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Tanaka-san to musuko-san ni koun o inorimasu<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">[To Tanaka-san and his son] I wish you all the best!<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<div class=\"content-box-grey\">\n<p><strong>&#26053;&#34892;&#12395;&#24184;&#36939;&#12434;&#31048;&#12426;&#12414;&#12377;<\/strong><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Ryoukou ni koun o inorimasu<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Wishing you all the best during your travels!<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2><b>&ldquo;All the best&rdquo; to a friend in Japanese<\/b><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">If you wish to give a friend or an acquaintance a quick &ldquo;best wishes&rdquo; in Japanese, you can say &ldquo;ogenki de ne!&rdquo; (&#12362;&#20803;&#27671;&#12391;&#12397;).<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This translates to &ldquo;be well&rdquo;, and is a general way to wish someone the best. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This is common among friends, coworkers, and family.&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">If you wish to make it a bit more formal, leave of the &ldquo;ne&rdquo; (&#12397;) at the end of the phrase, as this is a casual way to end the sentence. This would leave you with &ldquo;ogenki de&rdquo; (&#12362;&#20803;&#27671;&#12391;).&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This phrase is typically a standalone phrase with no context needed, and is used when saying goodbye to someone.&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">If you want to leave a parting &ldquo;all the best&rdquo; with specific context, you can still use &ldquo;ogenki&rdquo;. The surrounding grammar changes depending on what you wish to express, so it can be a bit trickier.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Examples:<\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"content-box-grey\">\n<p><strong>&#26053;&#34892;&#12395;&#12362;&#20803;&#27671;&#12391;&#12397;<\/strong><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Ryoukou ni ogenki de ne<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">All the best to you during your travels<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<div class=\"content-box-grey\">\n<p><strong>&#12450;&#12513;&#12522;&#12459;&#12391;&#12362;&#20803;&#27671;&#12395;<\/strong><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">America de ogenki ni<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">All the best to you in America<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>&nbsp;<br>\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">If you aren&rsquo;t sure exactly how to say what you want to, then stick to the basic &ldquo;ogenki de ne&rdquo; (&#12362;&#20803;&#27671;&#12391;&#12397;). This is a catch-all for wishing someone well in Japanese, and is a common pairing with goodbye- &ldquo;sayonara&rdquo; (&#12373;&#12424;&#12358;&#12394;&#12425;).<\/span><\/p>\n<h2>One more Japanese way to say good luck<\/h2>\n<p>You may, on occasion see &#12464;&#12483;&#12489;&#12521;&#12483;&#12463;, which is just the phonetic transcription of &ldquo;good luck.&rdquo; To pronounce this right, you&rsquo;d say <i>guddo rakku<\/i>.<\/p>\n<p>As far as I can tell, this one isn&rsquo;t really used in day-to-day speech. It&rsquo;s just a way to more directly carry over the English expression. You&rsquo;ll see it in some song titles, film titles, and when directly transliterating something over from English.<br>\n&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2>Good luck out in Japanland!<\/h2>\n<p>Alright, you&rsquo;ve officially got a full rundown of all the great ways to wish someone &ldquo;good luck&rdquo; in Japanese.<\/p>\n<p>Don&rsquo;t forget that these aren&rsquo;t exact translations of the words, but more like translations of the feelings and intentions.<\/p>\n<p>So, the next time you want to give someone a bit of encouragement, you know what to do! Good luck!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>How do you say &ldquo;Good Luck&rdquo; in Japanese? Well, you can, but you don&rsquo;t. If that doesn&rsquo;t make sense, stick around as I explain in depth all the details behind this difficult to translate phrase. Difficult? Really? For any English speaker, this probably seems as improbable as it does absurd. It&rsquo;s such a common, almost &hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6402,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"disable-in-feed":false,"article-schema-type":"Article","disable-critical-css":false,"_convertkit_action_broadcast_export":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[37,1155],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6400","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-japanese","category-japanese-vocabulary"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/linguaholic.com\/linguablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6400","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/linguaholic.com\/linguablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/linguaholic.com\/linguablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/linguaholic.com\/linguablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/linguaholic.com\/linguablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6400"}],"version-history":[{"count":31,"href":"https:\/\/linguaholic.com\/linguablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6400\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24273,"href":"https:\/\/linguaholic.com\/linguablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6400\/revisions\/24273"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/linguaholic.com\/linguablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6402"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/linguaholic.com\/linguablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6400"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/linguaholic.com\/linguablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6400"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/linguaholic.com\/linguablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6400"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}