How to Say Good Luck in Chinese: 加油, 祝你好运 and More
The phrase you want in almost every situation is 加油 (jiā yóu) — literally "add oil," and the closest thing Chinese has to "good luck," "you've got this," and "come on!" rolled into one. The textbook translation, 祝你好运 (zhù nǐ hǎo yùn), is grammatical and perfectly clear, but Chinese speakers reach for it far less often than learners expect, because Chinese encouragement tends to be about effort rather than luck.
Good luck / keep going / you've got this.
Literally "add oil" — step on the gas. Shout it at a race, text it before an exam, say it to a friend having a rough month. No English word covers all of that.
Universal- 加油 is the default — spoken, texted, chanted, printed on banners. It works before, during, and after the thing you're wishing luck for.
- 祝你好运 is real but under-used. In our 685-story catalog 加油 appears five times and 祝你好运 not once. It reads as slightly formal or translated, and it can imply the outcome is out of your hands.
- Match the phrase to the occasion: 祝你成功 for a venture, 一路平安 for a journey, 金榜题名 for an exam, 万事如意 at New Year.
- Don't wish a tailwind on a flight. 一路顺风 is for road and sea; for anyone flying, 一路平安 is the safe wish.
- Numbers carry luck: 8 (八 bā) sounds like 发 (fā, "prosper"), 4 (四 sì) sounds like 死 (sǐ, "death"). It shows up in gift amounts, phone numbers and missing floor numbers.
Why don't Chinese speakers say 祝你好运?
They do — just not as the reflex. 祝你好运 is a wish about fortune: 运 (yùn) is luck as a force that arrives from outside and lands on you. Wishing it on somebody is warm, but it also quietly says "this is out of your control now." Before an exam your friend has revised for, or a race they've trained for, that isn't the encouraging thing to say. 加油 is: it treats the outcome as something they're still driving.
That preference shows up in the numbers. Across the 685 graded stories in the Literate Chinese app — 145,817 Chinese characters of narrative and dialogue, measured August 2026 — 祝你好运 appears zero times, and so do 万事如意, 心想事成 and 一路顺风. 加油 appears five times, and every single one is somebody cheering somebody else on: a crowd at a sports day, a friend yelling 加油！你可以的！ at the finishing straight, a small girl calling 叔叔加油 to a driver stuck in traffic, and Cao Cao rallying an exhausted army in Cao Cao and the Plum Trees. Meanwhile the words for luck itself are common enough as nouns — 运气 (yùnqi) appears 15 times, 顺利 (shùnlì, "going smoothly") 9 times — they're just not what people say to each other.
So the practical rule: wish people effort and smoothness, not fortune. Save the fortune vocabulary for New Year, weddings and formal cards, where it genuinely belongs.
What does 加油 literally mean — and why is "add oil" in the dictionary?
加 (jiā) is "to add"; 油 (yóu) is "oil" or "fuel." Together they're what you do at a petrol station — 加油站 (jiāyóuzhàn) is literally an "add-oil station" — and the encouragement sense is the same image as English "step on it": more fuel, more speed. The cheer is generally traced to motor racing, and specifically to spectators at the Macau Grand Prix in the 1960s.
Hong Kong English calqued it word for word, and in October 2018 the Oxford English Dictionary added "add oil" as a Hong Kong English expression of encouragement, with evidence going back to 1964. It is one of the few Chinese phrases to enter English intact rather than in translation — which tells you how hard it is to render. "Good luck" loses the effort; "come on" loses the warmth; "you've got this" is close but can't be chanted by a stadium.
A few things follow from the literal meaning. 加油 attaches to a name or a group to make a slogan — 中国加油, 台湾加油, 妈妈加油 — which is why you see it on banners after disasters and at every sporting event. It also forms 加油打气 (jiā yóu dǎ qì, "to cheer someone on," literally "add oil and pump air"), the verb you'd use to describe encouraging someone.
Wishing someone luck before an exam
Exams are the single biggest occasion for luck vocabulary in Chinese, and there's a whole formal register for them — the 高考 (gāokǎo) and its Taiwanese equivalents generate an annual wave of banners, temple visits and carefully chosen four-character wishes.
Good luck on the exam!
The everyday message you'd actually send a friend the night before. Add 你可以的 ("you can do it") and you've written the whole text.
EverydayMay your exam go smoothly.
顺利 ("smooth, without obstacles") is the single most useful word in this article. It's what Chinese wishes instead of luck, and it fits work, travel, surgery and exams alike.
May your name be on the golden list — i.e. may you ace it.
From the imperial examinations, where successful candidates' names were posted on a gilded board. Formal, affectionate, and used every June by parents and teachers.
IdiomPass every exam you sit.
A modern student charm — printed on stationery, stickers and temple amulets. Cheerfully superstitious rather than solemn.
Student slangWishing someone a safe trip
Safe travels — the all-purpose one.
"Peace the whole way." Works for any mode of transport, including flying. In speech 一 shifts to the rising tone before 路: yílù píng'ān.
Bon voyage — but not to someone catching a flight.
"A favourable wind the whole way," a blessing born at sea. Many speakers avoid it for air travel, where wishing wind on a plane feels like tempting fate. Also yílù in speech.
Take care on the way.
What you actually say at the door as someone leaves your home at night. Warmer and less ceremonial than the four-character wishes.
CasualHave fun!
For a holiday rather than a commute. The 得 here links a verb to how it's done — the same structure as 干得漂亮 ("nicely done").
CasualWishing someone luck at work, in business, or at an interview
I hope you succeed.
The natural formal wish for an interview, a launch or a competition — and unlike 祝你好运, it credits the person rather than the fates.
May it all go smoothly.
The safest professional sign-off there is. Expand it to 祝你一切顺利 (yíqiè, "everything") to close an email warmly without being familiar.
ProfessionalWin the moment the banner unfurls — success from the off.
A military image: victory as soon as the flags are raised. Used for competitions, sales targets and exams, often paired with 马到成功.
IdiomSuccess the moment the horse arrives — instant results.
The classic wish for a new job, a new venture or a big pitch. Four-character wishes like this are the register of cards and toasts, not of texts.
IdiomNew Year and celebration wishes
This is where the luck vocabulary really lives. At Chinese New Year people trade four-character wishes the way English speakers trade "happy new year," and knowing three of them makes you a considerably better guest.
May all ten thousand things go as you wish.
The standard New Year wish, and safe for any age or rank. 万 ("ten thousand") is Chinese for "countless."
New YearMay what your heart wishes come true.
Warmer and more personal than 万事如意, and the two are almost always said together: 祝你新年快乐，万事如意，心想事成.
New YearCongratulations and may you get rich.
Cheerfully mercenary and completely standard at New Year. Outside the fortnight of the festival it reads as a joke — which is often the point.
New YearMay you be healthy.
The wish for older relatives, and the one they'll appreciate most. Pair it with 长命百岁 for a grandparent's birthday.
RespectfulAnd the direct translations — when do they work?
Good luck (literally: I wish you good fortune).
Correct and understood everywhere. Best when luck genuinely is the deciding factor — a lottery, a visa lottery, a draw — or in writing. As a spoken reflex it sounds translated.
Lucky — describing, not wishing.
你运气真好 = "you're so lucky." 运气 is luck as a quantity you happen to have; note the neutral tone on 气.
Fortunate, lucky (adjective).
我很幸运 — "I've been lucky." Slightly more written than 运气好, and the word inside 幸运儿 ("a lucky one") and 幸运数字 ("lucky number").
Which "good luck" should you use? A comparison table
| Phrase | Pinyin | When to use | Formality | Region |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 加油 | jiā yóu | Everything: exams, races, hard weeks, deadlines | Casual–neutral | Both |
| 祝你顺利 | zhù nǐ shùnlì | Work, appointments, anything that could go wrong | Neutral–formal | Both |
| 祝你成功 | zhù nǐ chénggōng | Interviews, launches, competitions | Neutral–formal | Both |
| 祝你好运 | zhù nǐ hǎo yùn | When luck really is the deciding factor; in writing | Neutral | Both |
| 金榜题名 | jīn bǎng tí míng | Exams — from parents, teachers, elders | Formal idiom | Both |
| 一路平安 | yī lù píng'ān | Any journey, including flights | Neutral | Both |
| 一路顺风 | yī lù shùn fēng | Road and sea journeys; avoided for flying | Neutral | Both |
| 旗开得胜 / 马到成功 | qí kāi dé shèng / mǎ dào chénggōng | Cards, toasts, banners, new ventures | Formal idiom | Both |
| 万事如意 / 心想事成 | wàn shì rú yì / xīn xiǎng shì chéng | New Year, weddings, birthdays | Formal | Both |
| 恭喜发财 | gōng xǐ fā cái | Chinese New Year only | Festive | Both |
What do the characters 加油 and 好运 mean?
That 运 is worth dwelling on. Chinese luck isn't a static property but something in motion — fortune that travels, arrives, and moves on. It's the same character in 运动 ("sport, movement"), 运输 ("transport") and 命运 ("destiny"). Once you see it, the whole vocabulary of luck hangs together: 好运 is fortune moving your way, 转运 (zhuǎnyùn) is your luck turning, and 倒霉 (dǎoméi) is the opposite — bad luck settling on you.
Lucky and unlucky numbers you should know
Chinese luck is heavily phonetic: a number is auspicious if it sounds like something good. This isn't folklore you can safely ignore — it shows up in prices, gifts and buildings.
- 8 (八 bā) is lucky because it sounds close to 发 (fā, in 发财 "to make a fortune"). Phone numbers, licence plates and apartment numbers containing 8 sell at a premium, and gift amounts of 88 or 888 are common.
- 4 (四 sì) is unlucky because it sounds like 死 (sǐ, "death"). Buildings routinely skip the 4th floor — and the 14th and 24th — the way Western buildings skip 13. Hospitals and hotels are especially careful.
- 6 (六 liù) is good, from 六六大顺 (liù liù dà shùn) — "may everything go smoothly," built on the same 顺 as 顺利.
- 9 (九 jiǔ) suggests longevity, sounding like 久 (jiǔ, "long-lasting") — which is why it shows up in wedding gifts.
- Practical version: never put a 4 in a gift amount, and prefer 8 and 6. A red envelope of ¥400 is a genuine faux pas; ¥600 or ¥888 is a kindness. Our guide to Chinese numbers has the pronunciation drill.
Mainland vs Taiwan: what changes?
加油 is universal — Mainland, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore, diaspora communities, all identical, and it's the same two characters in both scripts. The differences are in the surrounding customs.
Exam season. On the Mainland, the 高考 in early June brings banners reading 金榜题名 and 旗开得胜 across school gates, and parents traditionally wear 旗袍 (qípáo) on exam day — a pun on 旗开得胜. In Taiwan, students and their families visit temples to 拜拜 before big exams, particularly shrines to 文昌帝君, the deity of scholarship.
Snack superstition. Taiwan has a genuinely unique one: packets of the corn-puff snack 乖乖 (guāiguāi, "well-behaved") are placed on servers, ATMs, hospital equipment and lab machinery so the machines will behave. It has to be the green coconut-flavoured bag — green for the status light — and the practice runs all the way into semiconductor fabs and research institutes, as the Taipei Times has documented. If you work in tech in Taipei, you will meet a 乖乖 on a rack.
Register. Taiwanese Mandarin leans on 順利 even more heavily than Mainland Mandarin, and 加油 in Taiwan carries a slightly softer, more supportive flavour than the stadium-chant edge it has in the north. Neither difference will get you into trouble. The broader picture is in Taiwan Mandarin vs Mainland Mandarin, and if you're reading traditional characters, the same graded stories run in traditional Chinese reading practice.
Mistakes to avoid
- Using 祝你好运 as your everyday "good luck." It's not wrong, but it distances you from the person. Before an exam, a match or a presentation, 加油 is warmer and far more natural.
- Saying 一路顺风 to someone flying. A favourable wind is a sailor's blessing; wishing wind on an aircraft strikes many speakers as inauspicious. 一路平安 is always safe.
- Saying 加油 to someone who has just lost or is grieving. "Add oil" implies there's more effort to give, which can land as "try harder." Use 保重 (bǎozhòng, "take care of yourself"), 辛苦了 (xīnkǔ le, "you've worked hard / that was rough"), or 别太累了 instead.
- Translating "break a leg." There's no Chinese equivalent, and the literal version is exactly as alarming as it sounds. 加油 covers it.
- Putting a 4 in a gift amount. The number matters more than the sum. Round to 6 or 8 and you've said something nice without saying anything.
- Deploying four-character idioms in a text message. 万事如意 in a casual chat reads like signing a birthday card "yours faithfully." Keep the idioms for cards, toasts and New Year.
The idea underneath the phrase
Chinese has a rich, ancient vocabulary of fortune, and it is used most heavily at exactly the moments when nothing can be done: the turn of the year, a wedding, a departure, an exam already sat. In the moments when something can still be done, the language turns to effort — 加油, 努力 (nǔlì, "work hard"), 坚持 (jiānchí, "keep at it"). 努力 appears 49 times in our story catalog, ten times more often than 加油 and infinitely more often than 好运. That distribution isn't an accident; it's a worldview about where outcomes come from, and it's visible in the fables themselves. The Tortoise and the Hare ends on 只要不放弃、一步一步努力，也可能成功 — "as long as you don't give up and work step by step, you can succeed too." Not a word about luck.
Which is the useful lesson for a learner. If you're not sure what to say to someone facing something hard, you almost never need the fortune vocabulary. Two syllables and a bit of conviction will do: 加油.
More situation-by-situation guides are in our Chinese phrases guide, the four-character wishes are unpacked in positive Chinese idioms, and if you want to see 祝 doing its ordinary daily work, a bus driver wishes Lil Jon 祝您一天愉快 ("have a good day") in Lil Jon Takes the Bus.
Frequently asked questions
What does 加油 literally mean?
"Add oil" — 加 "add" plus 油 "oil/fuel," the same words used for refuelling a car at a 加油站. As encouragement it means step on the gas, keep going, push. The cheer is usually traced to motor racing at the Macau Grand Prix in the 1960s, and Hong Kong English borrowed it wholesale.
Is "add oil" really an English word now?
Yes. The Oxford English Dictionary added "add oil" in October 2018, labelled as Hong Kong English and defined as an expression of encouragement, with cited evidence back to 1964. It's one of very few Chinese expressions to enter English as a calque rather than a loanword.
How do you say good luck on an exam in Chinese?
加油 or 考试加油 to a friend, 祝你考试顺利 in a slightly more formal message, and 金榜题名 from a parent, teacher or elder. Students also swap 逢考必过 ("pass every exam"), which is half wish and half good-luck charm.
What's the difference between 顺利 and 好运?
顺利 (shùnlì) is "going smoothly, without obstacles" — a wish about the process. 好运 (hǎo yùn) is "good fortune" — a wish about the outcome, and about forces outside anyone's control. Chinese speakers wish each other 顺利 far more often, which is why 祝你一切顺利 is the safest thing to put at the end of an email.
Is it rude to say 加油 to someone who is struggling?
It can be, if what they need is comfort rather than momentum — 加油 assumes there's more effort to give. To someone grieving or exhausted, 保重 ("take care"), 辛苦了 ("that's been hard") or 别太累了 ("don't wear yourself out") is kinder.
Why do Chinese buildings skip the fourth floor?
Because 四 (sì, "four") sounds close to 死 (sǐ, "death"). Lifts commonly jump from 3 to 5, and skip 14 and 24 as well; some hospitals and hotels avoid the number entirely. The mirror image is 8 (八 bā), which echoes 发 (fā, "to prosper") and commands real premiums on phone numbers and plates.
