1. ohmyrichard

    ohmyrichard Active Member

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    Good luck to someone OR?

    Discussion in 'Word Mechanics' started by ohmyrichard, Nov 13, 2008.

    Hi, everyone. My pen pal tells me that her husband will have his dental surgery tomorrow. As I will write a reply letter to her, rather than her husband Mike, it may not be appropriate to say only "Good luck!" at the end of the letter. I plan to say "Good luck to Mike! I hope his dental surgery goes well tomorrow", but my Oxford and Longman dictionaries both tell me that "good luck to somebody" means that you do not mind what someone does, because it does not affect you and may help them. The Longman dictionary gives an example sentence after this explanation: Well, if she wants to go on her own, good luck to her, but I'm staying here. Oxford's example sentence is "It's not something I would care to try myself but if she wants to, good luck to her."

    What do native speakers of English say when they are in my current situation? I'm confused about it. You guys, please help me out.

    Thanks.

    Richard
     
  2. ohmyrichard

    ohmyrichard Active Member

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    Thanks, garmar69. What will you say if you are in my situation? Did you mean "I hope Mike's dental surgery goes well tomorrow" suffices?
    Thanks.
     
  3. ohmyrichard

    ohmyrichard Active Member

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    Thanks a lot.
     
  4. mammamaia

    mammamaia nit-picker-in-chief Contributor

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    or, 'best of luck to mike with his surgery'
     
  5. Alcatraz

    Alcatraz New Member

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    Or keep it simple and say something along the lines of, "I hope Mikes surgery goes well and he is OK."

    As a Scottish/British English speaker, I personally don't think there is anything wrong in writing, "Good luck to Mike with his surgery."

    Sometimes 'proper' written English is a tad pedantic, and as she is your friend, I'm sure she would appreciate the sentiment regardless of how you word your e-mail/letter.
     
  6. ohmyrichard

    ohmyrichard Active Member

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    Thanks, Alcatraz. I originally planned to say "Good luck to Mike with his dental surgery." but I could not find any examples of such combined sentence structure in my dictionaries. What I got was either "Good luck to someone" or "Good luck with something". And I googled it and still failed to find this combination. That is why I came over here to seek help.
    I never intend to be pedantic, but I have to be meticulous in communicating with native speakers, especially those who are willing to correspond with me on a regular basis; otherwise, they may get confused about my meanings if I always write too casually.
    Thanks again for your help.
    Wishing you all the best.
    Richard
     

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