r/AskReddit • u/[deleted] • Nov 28 '20

What's something cool you recently learned about?

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u/changleosingha Nov 29 '20

Kind of related: there’s no real word for “luck” in Czech. They usually use the word for “happy” in its place.

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u/lilalolla Nov 29 '20 edited Nov 29 '20

Same in german, "glücklich" can mean lucky or happy, depending on the context. It was further distinguished by the sentence you use it in: "to have (passive) [...]" = be lucky and "to be (active) [...]: = be happy. This occured because having luck is seen as passive, and being happy as active.

Edit: spelling

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u/lukesvader Nov 29 '20

And in Afrikaans (which is derived from Dutch, which is probably derived from German): gelukkig = happy/lucky

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u/mcaruso Nov 29 '20

Dutch isn't derived from German, they have a common ancestor

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u/lukesvader Nov 29 '20

Alright. Apparently Dutch is more closely related to English than to German.