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Translation for the phrase "Make your own luck" into French
Hello -- I wanted to translate the phrase "Make your own luck" into French. I have tried it in a few different free translation sites and it gives me something like, "Faire votre propre chance." I'm really a beginner with French (have only had 4 years of high school French, and that was 15 years ago!) but even I know "faire" should be conjugated -- into faîtes?
I really want to make sure this is exactly right because I would like to have a tattoo with this phrase, so I thought I would ask here. Thank you very much in advance!
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Erwan on
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What do you think of La chance se provoque or Il faut provoquer la chance ?
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Permalink Reply by Starla Dear on -
Thank you for your help and for taking the time to reply. I appreciate it! Those are two good options.
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Permalink Reply by Benoît on
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In that* particular case, you shouldn't translate "make" by "faire" but by “provoquer”.
And in French I don’t think you can make “your own” luck (I never heard such sentence). You can have some luck (a part of "The Luck" I guess) and it’s already not so bad…
So at the end I think "Make your own luck" can be translate by:
Provoque la chance !
Or
A toi de provoquer la chance.
You could also use “Prends ta chance !” (or “Saisis ta chance !”) if you want to say “seize the opportunity”.
*: I never know if I have to use “this” or “that”. Do you have some tips in order to help me remember which one I should use (and when)?
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Permalink Reply by Starla Dear on
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Thank you for your help! You and Erwan provided a lot of good options.
*I believe in this situation you would say "In this particular case...", because it deals with the specific case at hand, whereas "in that particular case" refers to a case that is not under immediate discussion. Or I've sometimes heard it as if you were discussing two different alternatives, the former would be "this case" and the latter would be "that case".
"in that case" can also be used in a less formal context, implying a changing conclusion (someone tells you "It's raining outside."... "Well, in that case I'm not going out.")
I believe the general rule for this/that is "this" is used to refer to something that is nearer the speaker and is often used with "here" to indicate such. "That" is to refer to something that is away from the speaker and is often used with "there" to indicate such.
You could silently put in here/there to help you use the correct form of this/that.
This [here] is my favorite shirt.
That [there] is my car parked down at the corner.
Hopefully that is helpful and I didn't provide too much information!
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Permalink Reply by mark stein on
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Aide toi et le ciel t'aidera !
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I think this proverb means that if you do not make any efforts no one will help you.
But "Make your own luck", on my opinion, means that events have to be caused sometimes. It seems to be really close from "La chance sourit aux audacieux" when you talk about money or business.
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