# Just my luck!



## joanvillafane

I was surprised not to find this in the WR dictionary - it's a very common expression to express frustration at an instance of bad luck, bad timing, etc.  "Just my luck!" also has an underlying connotation of chronic bad luck - this is just the sort of thing that happens to me, that happens to me all the time, etc.  Some examples:
You've been waiting all week to go to the beach and on Saturday it rains. "Just my luck!"
You've been wanting to meet someone and when you arrive at the party, you find out the person just left. "Just my luck!"

What do Italians say in this situation?
I found an online dictionary that said "La mia solita sfortuna!" but I always come to WR for confirmation 

Thanks!


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## GavinW

joanvillafane said:


> I found an online dictionary that said "La mia solita sfortuna!"



Ugh! What a horrible excuse for a translation! I'd stay away from that online dictionary, if I were you!


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## joanvillafane

Right, that's what I thought, Gavin.  My instincts were good...... so now, .......... what's the best translation?


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## Blackman

It's the right translation, the most formal of all. A colloquial way to say that is _Ecco/E ti pareva! la mia solita sfiga!, _but it's plenty of variations.


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## GavinW

Blackman said:


> It's the right translation, the most formal of all. A colloquial way to say that is _Ecco/E ti pareva! la mia solita sfiga!, _but it's plenty of variations.



"Right"? "Most formal"? Hmm, I'd call it the most literal translation. And therefore unsuccessful, for this reason: the English expression is idiomatic. On the other hand, the suggestions you make are much better, being equally idiomatic. I especially like "Ecco, ti pareva!/"E ti pareva!". I think we'll be hard pushed to better that one.


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## Paulfromitaly

joanvillafane said:


> I was surprised not to find this in the WR dictionary - it's a very common expression to express frustration at an instance of bad luck, bad timing, etc.  "Just my luck!" also has an underlying connotation of chronic bad luck - this is just the sort of thing that happens to me, that happens to me all the time, etc.  Some examples:
> You've been waiting all week to go to the beach and on Saturday it rains. "Just my luck!"
> You've been wanting to meet someone and when you arrive at the party, you find out the person just left. "Just my luck!"
> 
> What do Italians say in this situation?
> I found an online dictionary that said "La mia solita sfortuna!" but I always come to WR for confirmation
> 
> Thanks!



Nothing wrong with that


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## Blackman

Well, my mum wouldn't ever said _sfiga or culo, _then the only option left to her is _sfortuna/fortuna _(it works negative in positive too:_ la mia solita fortuna ).
_...





GavinW said:


> "Right"? "Most formal"? Hmm, I'd call it the most literal translation. And therefore unsuccessful, for this reason: the English expression is idiomatic. On the other hand, the suggestions you make are much better, being equally idiomatic. I especially like "Ecco, ti pareva!/"E ti pareva!". I think we'll be hard pushed to better that one.


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## GavinW

Paulfromitaly said:


> Nothing wrong with that



Et tu, Paule? ;-) Well, I'm going to put what little is left of my reputation on the line on this one. I'm sticking to my guns! In other words, I'm claiming that "La mia solita sfortuna" is not only not the best translation, it's actually... wrong!
Idiomaticity, guys (it's also a question of emphasis): that's the name of the game... 

@Blackman: Right, of course, e ci mancherebbe. And we also say in English: "My usual bad luck!" (The corollary being that "Just my luck" is saying something different.)


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## Gianfry

I agree with blackman and paul: nothing wrong with "la mia solita sfortuna!". If context allows you, you can add the following to blackman's list: "Lo sapevo!", "Tanto per cambiare!", and probably several others...

EDIT: @gavin: who says it's not idiomatic?


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## GavinW

Help! English native speakers to the rescue? ;-)


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## Mary49

I agree that "La mia solita sfortuna" is formally correct; in an idiomatic way, I usually say "Che sfiga!".


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## GavinW

Mary49 said:


> I agree that "La mia solita sfortuna" is formally correct; in an idiomatic way, I usually say "Che sfiga!".



I'm grateful for your post. It gives me a chance to point out that even we, as informed language users, often unconsciously confuse the technical meaning of idiomatic with a non-specific "layman's" understanding of the term. For instance, in your post I am convinced that you meant "colloquial" or "informal" (or even "slang"). These terms have to do with register, not with changes in meaning. However, sometimes we have to use a stricter sense of idiomatic, where the term refers to the fact that a particular combination of words has acquired a more or less new, fixed meaning which is typically different from the "sum of its parts" (in other words, different from the meaning, or the message, which the individual words appear to have when taken individually, and literally).

An example: "More's the pity". Informal? Colloquial? No: idiomatic. Translation? Well, the translation is hardly likely to be a literal translation of the individual words. (A likely translation is "Purtroppo")
Another example: "Just as well". Again, it's a classic idiomatic expression. It is, in some sense, opaque. You can only understand it (and translate it) when you understand how it is used in context. (As we all know, this has an equivalent idiomatic expression in Italian: "Meno male".)   

Now, I happen to think that the OP's definition was slightly misleading. I'd delete the adjective "chronic". I personally will happily say "Just my luck" without giving a thought to my past experience as far as luck goes. I use it just to express the extent of my disappointment on the specific occasion ("I really have been unlucky on this occasion", rather than "God, why am I always so unlucky?"). This makes the expression even more idiomatic. I would go as far as to say that the first person singular reference ("my") is (or can be) pretty much "delexicalised", in the sense that it could be an impersonal reference to bad luck generally (on a par with "Would you believe it?" and "How about that?" etc). This makes the expression even _more _idiomatic. Am I getting through to anyone?


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## alicip

Io direi: "La mia solita fortuna!" - usata in modo ironico, giustamente. 
Poi direi anche: 
"*Fortunato come un cane in chiesa*"
*"Fortunato come un asino sul ghiaccio"*
*"Tutte a me devono capitare!"
"Capitano tutte a me!"*


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## rrose17

GavinW said:


> Now, I happen to think that the OP's definition was slightly misleading. I'd delete the adjective "chronic". I personally will happily say "Just my luck" without giving a thought to my past experience as far as luck goes. I use it just to express the extent of my disappointment on the specific occasion ("I really have been unlucky on this occasion", rather than "God, why am I always so unlucky?"). This makes the expression even more idiomatic. I would go as far as to say that the first person singular reference ("my") is (or can be) pretty much "delexicalised", in the sense that it could be an impersonal reference to bad luck generally (on a par with "Would you believe it?" and "How about that?" etc). This makes the expression even _more _idiomatic. Am I getting through to anyone?


Such a plaintive cry for help can't be ignored.
 But I understand both your point and Joan's. Someone walking around with a dark cloud over them might say "Just my luck" when they open the door and it's raining out. They always have bad luck, even though it's raining on everyone and not just them. But I can imagine using the expression just to express frustration over arriving at the store to find that they'd just closed.Nothing deeper than that. But it would seem that our esteemed madrelinguas seem to have no problem with "La mia solita sfortuna". Even if it sounds a little formal I don't know if that makes it less idiomatic, just maybe a little less often used.


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## joanvillafane

Wow - so much to say about three little words!  I agree with Gavin about my possibly misleading inclusion of the word "chronic" - it's not necessary to the understanding of the expression.  ("I really have been unlucky on this occasion", rather than "God, why am I always so unlucky?"). 
And I wonder about alicip's last two suggestions -*(Tutte a me devono capitare!"/"Capitano tutte a me!") - *do these mean something like "Why me?" why does this have to happen to me? or This always happens to me! - I've never heard these expressions so I don't know how to compare them to "just my luck!"
and lastly, a question for Blackman - if your mum would never say "sfiga" is it the kind of word I should avoid too?  does it require warning exclamations around it?


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## Blackman

joanvillafane said:


> and lastly, a question for Blackman - if your mum would never say "sfiga" is it the kind of word I should avoid too?  does it require warning exclamations around it?



I'd say you should avoid it, even if actually it doesn't require a warning. It's a fairly modern word, slightly vulgar by assonance, sounding youngish, mainly for colloquial occasions.


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## alicip

joanvillafane said:


> Wow - so much to say about three little words!  I agree with Gavin about my possibly misleading inclusion of the word "chronic" - it's not necessary to the understanding of the expression.  ("I really have been unlucky on this occasion", rather than "God, why am I always so unlucky?").
> And I wonder about alicip's last two suggestions -*(Tutte a me devono capitare!"/"Capitano tutte a me!") - *do these mean something like "Why me?" why does this have to happen to me? or This always happens to me! - I've never heard these expressions so I don't know how to compare them to "just my luck!"
> and lastly, a question for Blackman - if your mum would never say "sfiga" is it the kind of word I should avoid too?  does it require warning exclamations around it?



Hi Joan.
*"Tutte a me devono capitare!"/"Capitano tutte a me!"* is more like *"It's/That's the story of my life."*


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## joanvillafane

Perfect! Grazie mille, alicip!


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## london calling

Blackman said:


> I'd say you should avoid it, even if actually it doesn't require a warning. It's a fairly modern word, slightly vulgar by assonance, sounding youngish, mainly for colloquial occasions.


 Age notwithstanding, I use it quite a lot!

I agree (ci mancherebbe 'la mia solita sfiga/che sfiga' is not the sort of thing I'd say in polite company, as they say, but in my opinion it translates 'just my luck' rather well. As you natives have all pointed out, 'la mia solita sfortuna' is the 'safest' way of saying it (but it's also decidedly boring!).


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## GavinW

london calling said:


> As you natives have all pointed out, 'la mia solita sfortuna' is the 'safest' way of saying it



I remain firmly convinced that "(Ecco/E) ti pareva" is the most accurate translation. But I'm not going to argue with anyone.


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## london calling

GavinW said:


> I remain firmly convinced that "(Ecco/E) ti pareva" is the most accurate translation.


That works for me as well. But 'che sfiga' is what I'd usually say.


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## Teerex51

GavinW said:


> I remain firmly convinced that "(Ecco/E) ti pareva" is the most accurate translation. But I'm not going to argue with anyone.


I like that! Well done Gavin  Alicip's _"Tutte a me"_ is a close second, I must say. I would probably use either one without a second thought.

As most other friends pointed out, _"la mia solita sfortuna" _is entirely correct -- but kind of staid, IMHO.


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## GavinW

Teerex51 said:


> I like that!



I can't take the credit for it, unfortunately! (=> Blackman, way back in post 4)


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## joanvillafane

Great! Lots of choices - and I really appreciate all the commentary.   Now I have at least one phrase for polite company, when I want to seem staid (probably never) and one "fairly modern word, slightly vulgar by assonance, sounding youngish, mainly for colloquial occasions" (according to one of my trusted advisors in post #16 ) 

You are all fantastic!


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## Teerex51

GavinW said:


> I can't take the credit for it, unfortunately! (=> Blackman, way back in post 4)



An officer and a gentleman.  

(Scusa UomoNero, non me n'ero accorto...)


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## giginho

Well, fellas!

I cannot stay out of this rumble......you need someone to show you that there's abnother way of saying! So here I am, a dwarf among giants.

If you won't to be deadly dull but you cannot be rough, maybe you can say: "la solita rogna!".....eh? Nice shot for Gigi eh?!?!?


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## Blackman

Gigì, io mi ricordo che si chiama _scarogna, _a meno che dalle tue parti non siano sinonimi, beninteso...


giginho said:


> Well, fellas!
> 
> I cannot stay out of this rumble......you need someone to show you that there's abnother way of saying! So here I am, a dwarf among giants.
> 
> If you won't to be deadly dull but you cannot be rough, maybe you can say: "la solita rogna!".....eh? Nice shot for Gigi eh?!?!?


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## london calling

Blackman said:


> Gigì, io mi ricordo che si chiama _scarogna, _a meno che dalle tue parti non siano sinonimi, beninteso...


Anche da queste parti si dice 'che scarogna'. Una _rogna_ qui significa un'altra cosa (una rottura di scatole, per intenderci).

Gigi, sia rogna sia scarogna significano _sfortuna _in Piemonte?


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## giginho

Dalle mie parti rogna ha il doppio significato di sfiga e di brutta gatta da pelare.....sarà che beccarsi una brutta gatta da pelare è una vera sfiga???


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## Mary49

london calling said:


> Anche da queste parti si dice 'che scarogna'. Una _rogna_ qui significa un'altra cosa (una rottura di scatole, per intenderci).
> 
> Gigi, sia rogna sia scarogna significano _sfortuna _in Piemonte?


Hai ragione, "rogna" = seccatura, anche in Piemonte (ci sono nata e vissuta). "Scalogna" è il termine originale, "scarogna" è modifica popolare, ma non settentrionale, secondo me.


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## giginho

Mary49 said:


> Hai ragione, "rogna" = seccatura, anche in Piemonte (ci sono nata e vissuta). "Scalogna" è il termine originale, "scarogna" è modifica popolare, ma non settentrionale, secondo me.



Ciao Mary!

su questo ci siamo, ma anche a te risulta che rogna si usi anche per sfiga?


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## Mary49

giginho said:


> Ciao Mary!
> 
> su questo ci siamo, ma anche a te risulta che rogna si usi anche per sfiga?


No, almeno ai miei tempi "rogna" non era sfortuna, ma solo rottura, seccatura.


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## giginho

Mary49 said:


> No, almeno ai miei tempi "rogna" non era sfortuna, ma solo rottura, seccatura.



.....e dire che il termine rogna è visto come antiquato ora...sarò io che sono fuori moda!

Ora ho sentito (e ho usato, lo confesso) il termine "iazza" per indicare la sfiga, tipo nelle frasi: "non mi tirare la iazza!".


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## Tellure

Si potrebbe dire anche "Quando si dice la fortuna/sfortuna!".


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## GavinW

Tellure said:


> Si potrebbe dire anche "Quando si dice la fortuna/sfortuna!".



I think this is a very nice translation (and a useful contribution)! 
I now realize that my whole problem with some suggested Italian translations has been due to the fact that the English expression very often expresses only mild disappointment (disappointment that passes quickly), not strong disappointment (despite any appearances to the contrary, particularly to non-native speakers). Of course, it depends on the stress that one gives to the enunciation, but the default setting is pretty bland, I think.


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