# unfortunate vs unfortunately

> English confusable word pair

## The two words

### unfortunate
*adjective · IPA /ʌnˈfɔː.t͡ʃə.nɪt/ · frequency rank #5,924*
Not favored by fortune.

### unfortunately
*adverb · IPA /ʌnˈfɔː.tjʊ.nət.li/ · frequency rank #2,416*
Happening through bad luck, or because of some unfortunate event.

## Source
Compiled from Wiktionary via kaikki.org (CC BY-SA). Data vintage: 2026-05-06.
Canonical page: https://plainspell.com/en/vs/unfortunate-vs-unfortunately