Welcome back learners! We’re here to present you with another French word of the week. In this edition of our blog, we’re looking at the word chance.
It’s important to listen to the audio clip below, as it’s quite different from how we pronounce the same word in English:
We should start by acknowledging that the French word chance is not just a direct translation of the English word ‘chance’ – did you really think it would be that easy? This is what we sometimes call a false friend. But while chance does sometimes use this meaning, its most common translation is ‘luck’.
Within the theme of being lucky or having some sort of chance, this word has many different uses, which we’ll explore in our examples of this feminine noun in action. Remember that you can work out a noun is feminine if it follows articles like la or une.
For more on this, check out our Easy Learning French Grammar pages on noun genders, definite articles and indefinite articles.
Now it’s time to see this seemingly simple word in a variety of scenarios in French:
avoir de la chance to be lucky
J’ai de la chance, c’est la quatrième fois que j’ai gagné ! I’m lucky, this is the fourth time I’ve won!
Bonne chance ! Good luck!
Tu lui as souhaité bonne chance pour l’entretien. Did you wish him good luck for the interview?
avoir la chance de faire quelque chose to be lucky enough to do something; to have the opportunity / chance to do something
Quand elle était jeune, notre sœur avait la chance de voyager autour du monde. When she was young, our sister had the opportunity to travel around the world.
Quelle chance ! How lucky!; That’s so lucky!
Aucune chance ! No chance!
Il n’y a aucune chance qu’ils aillent réussir. There’s no chance that they’ll succeed.
C’est un coup de chance qu’on soit parti avant l’orage. It’s a stroke of luck that we left before the storm.
une chance sur deux a one in two chance
la dernière chance last chance
par chance luckily; fortunately
la chance de sa vie once in a lifetime chance/opportunity
As you’re now so familiar with the noun chance, it’s worth knowing about its related adjective:
chanceux / chanceuse(s) (m/f)lucky ; fortunate
C’est incroyable que tu aies évité ce camion… tu dois être trop chanceux. It’s incredible that you avoided that lorry… you must be so lucky.
Interestingly, you can also use this word as a noun, to denote a lucky person or people:
Elles gagnent chaque fois qu’on joue. Quelles chanceuses ! They win every time we play. Such lucky girls!
We hope that this blog has given you a good chance to boost your French vocabulary and understanding. If you come back next week, you’ll be lucky enough to learn another word – see you then!
Written by Holly Tarbet, freelance copywriter and editor.
All opinions expressed on this blog are those of the individual writers, and do not necessarily reflect the opinions or policies of Collins, or its parent company, HarperCollins.
