As a Korean language teacher, I’ve seen many learners struggle to understand the meaning of 다행이다 [da-heng-i-da]. It expresses two mixed emotions—relief and happiness—which makes it difficult to translate correctly into English.

To be precise, 다행이다 is more about a feeling of relief. If there’s a possibility of something bad, and then it didn’t actually come to pass, we stop worrying: a feeling of “Thank goodness it didn’t happen.” That’s the case in which we can use 다행이다, which conveys the meaning “what a relief” or “thankfully.”

Be careful that you don’t use it to express only a happy or joyful mindset. Remember that it delivers a relieved feeling, dealing with situations.

Grammatically, Korean usually conjugates verbs or adjectives, adding the 아서 [aseo]/ 어서 [eoseo] meaning “because” to the stem, and then putting 다행이다 at the end of a sentence.

Now let’s get down to some examples, one by one. You’ll see 다행이다 is used in a variety of situations.

①

비가 안 와서 다행이에요.

[biga an waseo daheng-ieyo]

Thankfully it didn’t rain.

②

호텔 방이 별로 안 더러워서 다행이에요.

[hotel bang-i byeollo an deoreoweoseo daheng-ieyo]

Thankfully the hotel room isn’t too dirty.

③

별로 안 비싸서 다행이에요.

[byeollo an bissaseo daheng-ieyo]

Thankfully it’s not too expensive.

④ 

완전히 나아서 다행이에요.

[wanjeonhi na-aseo daheng-ieyo]

It’s a relief that you fully recovered from the injury.

⑤ 

와! 그렇다니 정말 다행이에요.

[wa geureotdani jeongmal daheng-ieyo]

Wow! It’s such a relief to hear that.

⑥ 

A: 지갑 찾았어요!

[jigap chajatsseoyo]

I found my wallet!

B: 정말요? 휴, 다행이에요!

[jeongmal-yo hyu daheng-ieyo]

Really? Phew, what a relief!