bad luck

You can use it as a noun to describe a situation. You might say, "I have such bad luck today!" You can also use it to comfort a friend. If your friend misses the bus by one second, you can say, "Oh, bad luck!" It shows you understand their frustration. It is a very flexible phrase for daily life.

Use it when something small goes wrong. Use it when a sports team loses a close game. It is great for texting a friend who failed a test. You can use it at work if a computer crashes during a meeting. It helps soften the blow of a negative event. It makes people feel less alone in their struggle.

Do not use it for very serious tragedies. If someone loses a loved one, bad luck sounds too casual and cold. Avoid using it if someone clearly made a bad choice. If your friend didn't study and failed, calling it bad luck is lying. Also, do not use it to brag about your own success. That just makes people annoyed with you.

English speakers are often superstitious about bad luck. Many people avoid walking under ladders or opening umbrellas indoors. Breaking a mirror is said to bring seven years of bad luck. Even people who don't believe in magic still use the phrase. It is a way to handle the randomness of life. It helps us laugh at things we cannot change.

You will often hear people say tough luck. This is a bit harsher and less sympathetic. Hard luck is another version, often used in British English. Some people say rotten luck when things are really going poorly. If you want to be funny, you can say just my luck. This implies that the universe specifically picked you to annoy today.