Words for thinking

These fifty nouns do not name objects; they name the parts of an argument, a measurement or a plan. Two of them sit close together and are the commonest trap in the list. L'occasion is the opportunity — je n'ai pas eu l'occasion de lui parler, I did not get the chance to speak to him — and la chance is good luck: tu as de la chance means you are lucky, and bonne chance ! is good luck. English « chance » went the other way and kept the opportunity and the probability, so the two words cross exactly. A French speaker who says « I had no chance » often means there was no opportunity, and an English speaker who says j'avais une chance has said he was lucky. When the idea is probability, French says la probabilité or le risque.