재수 없다 (jae-su oeb-da) – to be unlucky/just isn’t one’s day
Another exclamatory word that Koreans usually use in daily conversations.
재수 없다 can be used in both informal and formal situations but more commonly used informally.
재수 basically means “luck” so when combined with 없다, it literally means “no luck”.
There is another word for luck, though, which is 행운 or just 운. 행운 없다 works too, but usually, we would use (행)운 나쁘다 or 나쁜 (행)운 instead.
재수(가) 없다 is also used in spoken Korean much more often than in written. For written, we’ll use (행)운 instead.
Examples:
오늘은 내 인생의 제일 재수가 없는 날이야!
Today is my life’s unluckiest day ever!
아침에 일어난 순간부터 아무 것도 잘 되지 않았어. 진짜 재수 없어.
From the moment I woke up in the morning, nothing went well. It’s seriously just not my day.
집에서 나가기 전에 날씨가 정말 좋았는데 집을 떠날 때 비가 막 내렸어. 재수가 없다!
Before getting out of my house, the weather was really good but when I left house, it just rained. So unlucky!