Express ‘good luck’ in Chinese

幸亏 (xìngkuī), 幸好 (xìnghǎo), and 还好 (háihǎo) mean "fortunately" or "luckily". They can be used to express that something has happened by chance, and has thereby enabled you to avoid some difficulty or bad luck. It is often followed with 不然 (which precedes the bad thing that could have happened).

"幸亏" 、"幸好"以及"还好"的意思是"fortunately"或者"luckily"。它们可用于表达某事意外发生并因此让你免于陷入某种困难或坏运气，其后通常会跟"不然"（它的后面会跟上本来会发生的事情）这个词。

Expressing Luck with 幸亏 and 幸好

It's as simple is adding 幸亏 or 幸好 before the thing that makes you feel lucky.

很简单，只需把"幸亏"或"幸好"放于让你觉得幸运的事之前。

幸亏 / 幸好 + [lucky incident]

And if you want to add in 不然 for an "otherwise… " explanation, use this structure:

要是你想插入表示"otherwise"的词"不然"进行解释的话，就使用这个结构：

幸亏 / 幸好 + [lucky incident]， 不然 + [bad thing that could have happened]

Examples

幸亏我们走得早。

xìngkuī wǒmen zǒu dé zǎo.

Luckily, we left early.

幸亏你在，不然我不知道该找谁。

xìngkuī nǐ zài, bùrán wǒ bù zhīdào gāi zhǎo shuí.

Fortunately you're here, otherwise I don't know who I could turn to.

幸好今天带伞了，不然要淋湿了。

xìnghǎo jīntiān dài sǎnle, bùrán yào lín shīle.

It's a good thing I brought the umbrella. Otherwise, I would have gotten soaked.

Expressing Luck with 还好

"还好" can also mean "fortunately," but is more colloquial than 幸好 or 幸亏.

"还好"也可以表示"fortunately"，但比"幸好"或者"幸亏"更加口语化。

还好 + [lucky incident]

And if you want to add "不然" with an "otherwise…" explanation, use this structure:

要是你想加上表示"otherwise"的"不然"一词进行解释的话，就使用下面的例子：

还好 + [lucky incident],  不然 + [bad thing that could have happened]

Examples

还好我没听他的，不然我就倒霉了。

hái hǎo wǒ méi tīng tā de, bùrán wǒ jiù dǎoméi le.

It's a good thing I didn't listen to him. Otherwise I would have been in for it.

还好我保存了，不然文件都丢了。

hái hǎo wǒ bǎocún le, bùrán wénjiàn dōu diū le.

Luckily I saved it, otherwise I would have lost all of the documents.

Translated from: allsetlearning

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