Cómo se dice "unfortunately" en Español?

Question

I looked it up but I get three different answers. Could you guys please help me? These are the words I get: Desafortunadamente Por desgracia Lamentablemente

Could you please add your language level to your profile. - rac1, Aug 14, 2014

Answer 1

So far your profile says 0 for English and 0 for Spanish. Please let us know if you are a beginner, intermediate, advanced or fluent in both. Your gender and country of residence also help us help you. Assuming that you are going to fill those things out in your profile, I offer you this insight:

Desafortunadamente has the sense of being not fortunate or lucky

Por desgracia has the sense of "I'm ashamed or embarrassed to say"

Lamentablemente has the sense of sorrow or lament

You choose the one that makes sense in the context.

jubilado your reasoning es quite right (less with ashamed/embarrased) but all them express the same idea - 003e54f5, Aug 14, 2014

Desafortunadamente, por desgracia y lamentablement no sé que digo. - Jubilado, Aug 15, 2014

jajaj you got it! - 003e54f5, Aug 15, 2014

Honestly, I almost always use por desgracia because it is the one I am least likely to stumble over. :D - bosquederoble, Aug 15, 2014

Answer 2

all them mean the same (unfortunately) and you can use them randomly

So are the subtlies I mentioned not applicable? If so I want to correct my answer. My approach was from a linguistic rather than native usage point of view. - Jubilado, Aug 14, 2014

That's fortunate! Now I don't have to remember any one specific Thank you! :-) - 007c5fc1, Aug 14, 2014

Easy for you to say! Arrivederci. - Jubilado, Aug 15, 2014