# Third time's a/the charm



## 涼宮

Hi!

I couldn't find any threads about this expression, which is surprising. 

How do you say _third time's the charm/third time lucky_ in your language(s) and what does it literally mean?

*Spanish*:

La tercera es la vencida (the third one is the victory)
A la tercera va la vencida (same but with the verb _to go_)

*Japanese*:

三度目の正直 _sandome no shoujiki _(the honesty of the third time)

*French*:

La troisìeme fois sera la bonne (the third time will be the good one)

La troisìeme fois est la bonne (the third time is the good one)


It's interesting to notice all of them use the number 3

Thanks!


----------



## SuperXW

I don't think we have an equivalence in Chinese. I only understood it after checking the dictionary. Thanks for the new idiom!


----------



## ahmedcowon

In Egyptian Arabic we say التالتة تابتة _/et-talta tabta/_ (the third is the perminent)


----------



## ThomasK

Dutch: *"derde keer, goede keer"* [lit. third time, good time], or more idiomatically: *'derde keer is scheepsrecht'* (lit. ship's right > maritime law). Background is the holy number three, and maybe the fact that there were things to be done in three: three meals a day, spanking, when throwing a dead body into the sea...


----------



## Dymn

Most Catalans just calque the Spanish expression (_a la tercera va la vençuda_), however some stylebooks recommend alternatives like _al tercer cop no falla _"at the third time it doesn't fail" or _la tercera és la bona _"the third is the good one".


----------



## apmoy70

Greek:

*«Τρίτη και τυχερή»* [ˈtriti ce tiçeˈɾi] (all fem.) --> _third (time) and fortunate_


----------



## 涼宮

SuperXW said:


> I don't think we have an equivalence in Chinese. I only understood it after checking the dictionary. Thanks for the new idiom!


If you don't have an equivalent in Mandarin per se, what kind of expressions do you have regarding luck? Something along the lines of 'I've been failing so far but I'll surely succeed now because XXXX (here comes the number 3 in other languages)'.



ThomasK said:


> Dutch: *"derde keer, goede keer"* [lit. third time, good time], or more idiomatically: *'derde keer is scheepsrecht'* (lit. ship's right > maritime law). Background is the holy number three, and maybe the fact that there were things to be done in three: three meals a day, spanking, when throwing a dead body into the sea...



It'd be interesting to know why the number 3 seems to be a big thing in different cultures. I'm surprised Japanese also uses the number 3, perhaps they took the expression from the West. Though I guess every culture has some sort of superstition regarding numbers, just like in Japan the number 4 is bad because it's a homophone with the word death, so sometimes you don't find a 4th floor in buildings, 1,2,3,5,6, etc.


----------



## Messquito

In Chinese, there is a close idiom:
事不過三 lit. Things don't exceed three. --> The same thing (bad/good) won't happens more than three times in a row. Meaning that lucks, be them good or bad, never last too long. (To be more specific, put 好(good) or 壞(bad) in front of it, making it 好事不過三 or 壞事不過三, the latter being closest to "third time's a charm")
I would like to mention that this idiom is,however, more often used to mean "don't make the same mistakes over and over again," which is a more traditional definition.


----------



## ger4

The closest German equivalent is probably _Aller guten Dinge sind drei_, literally 'of all good things there are three'.


----------



## SuperXW

Messquito said:


> In Chinese, there is a close idiom:
> 事不過三
> ...
> I would like to mention that this idiom is,however, more often used to mean "don't make the same mistakes over and over again," which is a more traditional definition.


Literally it is similar to "third time's the charm", however, just like what you said, it is understood as "don't make the same mistakes for more than three times". It can almost never be the translation of "third time's the charm".


----------



## ilocas2

This topic reminded me one of my favourite quotes, a quote from Paulo Coelho's novel O Alquimista (The Alchemist) - _Tudo que acontece uma vez poderá nunca mais acontecer, mas tudo o que acontece duas vezes, certamente acontecerá uma terceira. (Everything that happens once can never happen again. But everything that happens twice will surely happen a third time.)_


----------



## mataripis

I remember the old Tagalog in the Bible. The third time in Modern form is makatatlong ulit. But in old form - the third time is the fortune( Sa makaitlo ay ang kapalaran). It simply reminds us that usually the third time the practice is perfect and done.


----------



## Armas

Finnish:

_Kolmas kerta toden sanoo_ "The third time tells the truth".


----------



## bibax

Czech:

*do třetice všeho dobrého* (lit. _"to [the] triplet/triad/trinity of all good"_, there is no article in Czech)

It has two meanings:

1) there were two successful attempts, so we hope that the third attemp will be successful, too;

2) there were two unsuccessful attempts, so we hope that the third attempt will be successful finally.

Typically (but not exclusively) used in the games of chance.


----------



## 123xyz

Macedonian:

Very simply, *трета среќа* (lit. third luck). It's a very popular expression.


----------



## Dymn

*Portuguese*: _à terceira é de vez_ ("at the third [time] it's once and for all")


----------



## ain'ttranslationfun?

"Things come/happen in threes.", either good or bad. FR "Jamais deux sans trois." (never two without three.")


----------



## AndrasBP

We think national:

"Három a magyar igazság!" = Three is the Hungarian truth!


----------



## ThomasK

Dutch (Flanders): "Derde keer, goede keer!" (Third time, good time!)


----------



## symposium

ain'ttranslationfun? said:


> "Things come/happen in threes.", either good or bad. FR "Jamais deux sans trois." (never two without three.")


In Italian we haven't got a phrase about the third time being the lucky one, but we often say "Non c'è due senza tre", which means "There's no two without three", which is basically the Italian version of the above.


----------



## oveka

Ukrainian:
_Бог любить трійцю /_God loves a trinity_/_


----------



## elroy

ahmedcowon said:


> In Egyptian Arabic we say التالتة تابتة _/et-talta tabta/_ (the third is the perminent)


 The same expression is used in Palestinian Arabic, but it’s pronounced differently: _it-tālte θābte_.


----------



## Perseas

apmoy70 said:


> Greek:
> 
> *«Τρίτη και τυχερή»* [ˈtriti ce tiçeˈɾi] (all fem.) --> _third (time) and fortunate_


Or from the pessimist point of view:«τρίτη και φαρμακερή» ~ third (time) and poisonous/vicious.


----------



## Mahaodeh

elroy said:


> The same expression is used in Palestinian Arabic, but it’s pronounced differently: _it-tālte θābte_.


In Iraqi Arabic it's الثالثة نابتة e_θ_-_θ_al_θ_e nabte = the third one will grow.


----------



## In-Su

ain'ttranslationfun? said:


> FR "Jamais deux sans trois." (never two without three.")


But this doesn't mean third time's the charm, it means that something (bad) which has already happened twice is likely to happen again a third time.


----------



## DearPrudence

In-Su said:


> ain'ttranslationfun? said:
> 
> 
> 
> "Things come/happen in threes.", either good or bad. FR "Jamais deux sans trois." (never two without three.")
> 
> 
> 
> But this doesn't mean third time's the charm, it means that something (bad) which has already happened twice is likely to happen again a third time.
Click to expand...

I fully agree!
You can say "*La troisième (fois) sera la bonne*" _(the third (one) will be the good one)_, but it is not a set phrase like "third time's a/the charm".
I mean, you could put any number ("fourth, fifth...") and not necessarily the third time.
https://forum.wordreference.com/threads/third-time-lucky.3577653/https://forum.wordreference.com/threads/third-times-a-charm.206781/(as a matter of fact, I wanted to use the English expression in French yesterday to be encouraging, until I realised that, well, it doesn't work in French )


----------



## Graciela J

ain'ttranslationfun? said:


> "Things come/happen in threes.", either good or bad. FR "Jamais deux sans trois." (never two without three.")



Also in Spanish: "No hay dos sin tres" (There is no two without three)


----------



## aureus232

ThomasK said:


> Dutch: *"derde keer, goede keer"* [lit. third time, good time], or more idiomatically: *'derde keer is scheepsrecht'* (lit. ship's right > maritime law).


In the Netherlands, as oppsoed to Flanders, the expression actually goes like this: '*drie keer is scheepsrecht*' , or '*drie maal is scheepsrecht*' 
'Derde keer, goede keer' is also Flemish.


----------



## ThomasK

That is about what I suggested, I should think. I just called it "more idiomatically"...


----------



## AutumnOwl

Swedish:
Tredje gången gillt! - third time (gillt probably from giltigt, meaning valid).


----------



## Włoskipolak 72

Polish 

do trzech razy sztuka =  "third time lucky"


----------



## aureus232

ThomasK said:


> That is about what I suggested, I should think. I just called it "more idiomatically"...


Yes, but in the Netherlands we never say ''derde keer, goede keer'', it's a phrase never heard. So, it's not only less idiomatic, it doesn't exist.


----------



## burex

Hebrew:

פעם שלישית גלידה (p'am shlishit glida) - lit. third time (is) ice cream.


----------



## Cork Irish

The correct English phrase is "third time's THE charm", not "A charm", although some native speakers can get mixed up. In any case, this is today a US phrase. In British English it is "third time lucky". Check Ngrams for US and UK English with these phrases.


----------



## Welsh_Sion

Perhaps related.

Cymraeg/Welsh.

*Tri chyfle i Gymro* = Three chances ('opportunities') for a Welshman.

That is, if he fails the first time, he always has a second chance to succeed. If that, too fails, well, he still has a third chance!


----------



## Cork Irish

The Irish dialects are fairly divergent from each other. I can only find an Ulster Irish version of this phrase found in the book _Seanfhocail Uladh_ (proverbs of Ulster):

*Is olc an tríú hiarracht nach mbainfidh*: this means, literally, it's a bad third attempt that will not win.

It's probable this could also work in the other dialects too. In the Southern dialect (Munster) it would have to be *is olc an tríú hiarracht ná bainfidh* because of divergent grammatical norms.


----------

