English Help Online's Blog

Today, I would like to teach you a commonly used noun in the English language: “fluke”. It is used when we want to talk about being successful at something just from being lucky. For example:

When I was playing pool, I sank two balls in one shot, but it was just a fluke.

I made dinner for my friends last night, but I didn’t use a recipe. Usually when I do that, the food isn’t so good, but this time it turned out well. It was a total fluke.

A: How did Ryan manage to score the winning goal in the soccer game?

B: I think it was a fluke. He’s usually not such a good player.

So, as you can see, we use the word “fluke” with the verb “be” in the past tense – “was”. We often use it when talking about ourselves or other people who are not present, but it’s not polite to say directly to another person that the reason for their success was because it was a fluke. This word is usually used in casual conversations.