1 (deserving of pity, unlucky) how very unfortunate! ¡qué mala suerte!; ¡qué desgracia!; you have been most unfortunate ha tenido usted muy mala suerte; we must help these unfortunate people debemos ayudar a estas personas tan desafortunadas; he was unfortunate enough to be caught tuvo la desgracia or mala suerte de que lo cogieran or pillaran
he was one of those unfortunate people who put on weight very easily
it is most unfortunate that he left es una lástima or muy de lamentar que se haya ido
2 (unsuitable, regrettable) [+remark] poco acertado; inoportuno; [+incident, consequences, tendency] lamentable it was an unfortunate choice of words las palabras que se eligieron fueron poco acertadas
most people resigned themselves to make the most of an unfortunate situation we're in the unfortunate situation of having ceded to Saddam Hussein it is hoped that something positive can be learned from this unfortunate event a journalist had started taking pictures of the unfortunate event My friends, I noticed, were developing the unfortunate tendency of assigning to me belongings I didn't want he has the unfortunate tendency of getting in other people's hair he witnessed Caporelli's unfortunate death it would be a shame for the press to capitalize on his unfortunate death
