Lai veicas!

Good Wishes with Lai

Level 2

Lai + a verb makes a good wish: Lai veicas! (Good luck!), Lai labi garšo! (Enjoy your meal!), Lai jauka diena! (Have a nice day!)

How It Works

1. Lai + third-person verb. The most common wishes use a verb in the third person present:

  • Lai veicas! (Good luck!, literally let it go well) from veikties (to go well)
  • Lai labi garšo! (Enjoy your meal!, literally let it taste good) from garšot (to taste)
  • Lai izdodas! (I hope it works out!) from izdoties (to succeed)

2. Adding the person. The person the wish is for goes in the dative, as with man, tev, viņam, viņai: Lai tev veicas!, Lai jums labi garšo! This is because Latvian says that things go well for someone.

3. Wishes with no verb. A few wishes leave out the verb: Lai jauka diena! (Have a nice day!), Lai jums jauks vakars! (Have a nice evening!). The adjective agrees with the noun: jauka diena (feminine), jauks vakars (masculine).

4. Adding a place or occasion. Lai veicas eksāmenā! (Good luck in the exam!), Lai veicas darbā! (Good luck at work!)

5. How to answer. Say Paldies! (Thank you!), or Paldies, tev arī! (Thanks, you too!).

The same lai gives wishes and commands about other people, such as Lai dzīvo Latvija! (Long live Latvia!). See lai + present.

Examples (6)

  1. Lai veicas!

    Good luck!

    Word by Word: Let (it) go-well!

  2. Lai labi garšo!

    Enjoy your meal!

    Word by Word: Let (it) taste good!

  3. Lai jauka diena!

    Have a nice day!

    This wish has no verb. Jauka agrees with the feminine noun diena.

  4. Lai tev veicas eksāmenā!

    Good luck in your exam!

    Tev is dative: the exam should go well for you.

  5. Lai jums labi garšo!

    Enjoy your meal!

    Said to several people, or politely to one person.

  6. Lai izdodas!

    I hope it works out!

Common Mistakes

  • Putting the person in the nominative.

    Lai tu veicas!
    Lai tev veicas!

    Veikties means that something goes well for a person, so the person is in the dative: tev, jums, viņam.

  • Making the verb agree with the person.

    Lai jums labi garšojat!
    Lai jums labi garšo!

    The food is what tastes good, so the verb stays in the third person: garšo.

  • Writing the past tense veicās.

    Lai veicās!
    Lai veicas!

    Veicās with a long ā is the past tense (it went well). A wish uses the present, veicas.

How It Connects

Tap a pattern to see what it builds on and what it leads to.

Lai veicas!Level 2Good Wishes with Lai

Learn This First

Lai veicas uses a dative pronoun.

Words in This Pattern

veiktiesgaršot