人的一生，有幸運與不幸的日子。有人說：一個人幸運的造成，主要在於他自己（英國培根）；也有人說：淺薄的人相信運氣，堅强的人相信因果（美國愛默生）。您呢？
吉星高照
好運、幸運、僥倖的慣用語（good luck and lucky expressions）非常普遍，最自然最流行的說法有：
You’re in luck 你運氣不錯；
Good luck! 祝你順利！
Wish you the best of luck! 祝成功！祝好運！
What a stroke of luck! 運氣真好！
Any luck? 運氣怎麼樣？
a lucky charm 吉祥飾物；
strike it lucky 交上好運 = very lucky, especially when you were not expecting it；
third time lucky 過一過二不過三，但願你第三次交好運；
You can thank your lucky stars 吉星高照，真好運；
a lucky day 良辰吉日；
a lucky guess 僥倖的猜中。
選字遣詞的幾點指引（word choice guide）：
Do not say that someone “has luck”. Say they are lucky: I was lucky and got to the airport in time.
You can use “have” with luck only when luck has something before it such as “bad”, “good”, “much”, “any”, “a bit of”, etc: He’s had a lot of bad luck recently.
語法上 luck 屬不可數名詞（”luck” is an uncountable noun）。Do not say a luck. To talk about one lucky event, you can say a piece of luck, a bit of luck, or a stroke of luck. 例句：Seeing him at that moment was an amazing piece of luck (NOT an amazing luck)；What a stroke of luck! = very good luck 運氣真好！
Luxky/Fortunate/Fortuitous 三個同義詞，用法有分別：
Lucky is a very informal word, carrying no implication in current use of any divine or supernatural intervention，字義不暗示任何神或超自然因素的介入。”Lucky” refers to a chance occurrence that proves beneficial 常指有好處的偶發事件，例如：I was lucky to catch the last bus 我真好運，趕上了最後一班公共汽車。
Fortunate 幸運的 may once have implied a favourable sign: now it often indicates present success or good circumstances: One should be kind to those less fortunate than oneself 我們要善待比較不幸的人；He is fortunate in having a good wife 他真幸運，有一個好妻子。
Fortuitous 偶然發生的 = happening by chance, especially a lucky chance that brings a good result; fortuitous 有 accidental 的含意。偶然相遇，便是 a fortuitous meeting。Throughout Barack Obama’s political career, a series of fortuitous events have led pundits, comedians and conservatives to dub him “the luckiest politician alive”.
運氣不佳
英語中，有以下两個表達不幸的慣用語（unlucky common expressions）：
Down on his luck = anyone who is suffering from poverty, unemployment or constant misfortune, he is in need of money after a period of bad luck 窮困潦倒，因一時倒霉而不名一文。Gymnast down on his luck ends up on the street.
I’ve had a run of bad luck = a series of bad things happened to me 運滯連連。
別人失意，運氣不佳，你可以用以下的說法，安慰他，鼓勵他，祝下次好運：
Hard luck/bad luck/tough luck are used to express sympathy when something unpleasant has happened to some one. 其他流行的說法，還有：
Your luck was out!
You are out of luck.
Better luck next time!
Never mind. Your turn will come.
Perhaps your luck will change. You never know!
洋迷信
十三不祥，是最典型的洋迷信。13 is an unlucky number.
The most superstitious of all number, 13 is even responsible for a recognized psychological condition, triskaidekaphobia—the fear of the number 13. Phobia 恐懼症 is a strong unreasonable fear of something 無名的極度恐懼，例如：claustrophobia 幽閉恐懼症；aqua-phobia 恐水症。
西方很多高樓大厦沒有13樓，many tall buildings will skip from level 12 to 14；美國有些超級公路不設第13條出口通道，certain highways have no 13th exit；職業球隊沒有13號球衣，sports teams often leave out the number 13 on their shirt numbers。
西方航空公司，字數迷信更普遍，飛機上，沒有13行座位。遠東的航空公司，不喜歡跟「死」字諧音的4字，飛機上沒有第4行機位，南韓首爾仁川機場 Incheon Airport in Seoul, Korea沒有4號、44號和13號的登機門。
美國航班，對7號和11號，有不吉利的迷信，these numbers are considered unlucky；两架飛往 Las Vegas 拉斯維加斯777和711的客機，曾經失事。Perhaps this is the reason why the 9/11 terrorists chose to hijack flights 77 and 11.
同樣道理，中國人特別喜歡好事成雙的88班機！In China, there’s a lot of demand to get on board flight 88, the number standing for double prosperity.
本專欄逢周二、五發表
