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Superstitious French Expression
| Meaning | Friday the 13th | |
| Register | normal | |
| Pronunciation |  |
[va(n) dr(eu) dee trehz] |
| IPA | [vã drə di tʁɛz] | |
Usage notes: There’s at least one vendredi treize every calendar year, which is pretty bad news for those who fear it. Fortunately, paraskevidekatriaphobia (la paraskevidékatriaphobie) isn’t universal, even within cultures that generally consider Friday the 13th an unlucky day. In fact, some people think it’s lucky, so games of chance companies like Français des jeux sometimes offer larger cagnottes (pools) that day.
Par exemple…
| – Tu vas jouer au loto aujourd’hui ? | – Are you going to play the loto today? | |
| – Mais non, c’est le vendredi treize ! C’est un jour de poisse. | – Of course not, it’s Friday the 13th! It’s an unlucky day. | |
| – Ah dommage, pour moi c’est un jour de chance. | – Oh too bad, for me it’s a lucky day. |
French words and expressions related to luck
- le bonheur – good luck
- porter bonheur – to be / bring good luck
- la chance – luck
- avoir la chance de – to be lucky to
- avoir de la chance – to be lucky
- Bonne chance ! – Good luck!
- porter chance – to be / bring good luck
- chanceux – lucky
- un jour de chance – lucky day
- avoir du pot (informal) – to be lucky
- les dents du bonheur – lucky teeth
- je te dis merde (informal) – break a leg
- la malchance – bad luck
- le malheur – bad luck
- porter malheur – to be / bring bad luck
- malchanceux – unlucky
- la poisse (familiar) – bad luck
- avoir la poisse – to have bad luck
- porter la poisse – to be / bring bad luck
- un jour de poisse – unlucky day
- la superstition – superstition
- superstitieux – superstitious
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