Get ready to discover all the things you have to know about the basic French sentence "Bon courage". It includes a complete guide of what it is and how to use it in a casual conversation with an audio example. But that's not all, we also added some useful things like synonyms, slow pronunciation audio, dialogue example and more!
Translation : Hang in there
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IPA : / bɔ̃ kuʁaʒ /
The closest meaning in English is "Hang in there" or "You can do it" or "Be strong". But we often see it translated as "Good luck" which is making people confusing it with "Bonne chance" (The actual way to say "Good luck" in French).
They are similar, but yet quite different: "Bon courage" is something you say to offer support before (or during) a test, an exam or any laborious task. It means that the success of this task depends on how hard the person is working and not giving up.
While "Bonne chance" (Good luck) is something you wish to someone when luck is involved or when the success of the task relies on external factors. In short: when it doesn't depend on work/courage, or just partially.
Let's see some examples on how to use both of them!
A friend of yours is having an important exam next week, then you wish her "Bon courage !". Because her success depends on how hard she will work during the days to come and how much she will do her best during the exam.
The next week, your friend tells you she failed the exam, quit studying and then decided to play the lottery. This time, you wish her "Bonne chance !" because her success depends purely on luck and has nothing to do with courage/work.
↓ Example in a story with French audio ↓
Finally, let's see an example in a parallel story with slow audio.
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