The most direct way to say "Happy birthday" in French is joyeux anniversaire, but actually, there are many ways to say birthday in this language. Here are some birthday wishes in French that you might find useful.
Step
Method 1 of 3: Standard Birthday Greetings
Step 1. Call for Joyeux anniversaire
This greeting is the first of two standard birthday greetings used in France.
- Remember, you can use this greeting in Quebec city (Canada) and other French-speaking cities in Canada, but it's not the most popular greeting to wish a happy birthday there.
- This phrase translates directly to "happy birthday" or "happy birthday".
- The word joyeux means "happy" or "happy, happy, or joyful".
- The word anniversaire can mean "birthday" or "anniversary" but when used alone without any frills, it most often refers to someone's birthday. To refer to a wedding anniversary, you need to say anniversaire de mariage.
Step 2. Switch to Bon anniversaire
. This is the second most widely used standard birthday greeting in France.
- Like joyeux anniversaire, bon anniversaire can also be used and understood in French-speaking parts of Canada, but is not the most common birthday greeting there.
- Bon usually means "good", "good", or "well". Thus, this sentence when translated literally means more to "have a nice birthday" than "happy birthday".
Step 3. Use the bonne fête in the French-speaking part of Canada
This is the most common and common way of saying "happy birthday" in French-speaking parts of Canada, such as Quebec city.
- Unlike joyeux anniversaire and bon anniversaire, bonne fête' cannot be used in both France and Canada. In France, bonne fête is usually used to wish "name day". One's "name day" refers to the feast day of the saint from which one's name is derived. In Europe, where the majority of the population is Christian, each city usually has a city patron saint or many saints who are distinguished, and are celebrated on certain days as festivals. For example, San Idiro which is the patron saint of the city of Madrid.
- Bonne is the feminine form of the word bon, which means "good" ("good" or "well"), and also like "good" in English which means "good night" (good night = bonne nuit)
- Fête means "celebration."
- So when translated directly, bonne fête means have a good celebration n or "have a nice celebration".
Method 2 of 3: Less common Birthday Greetings
Step 1. Say Passez une merveilleuse journée
In English, this statement means "have a wonderful day".
- Passez is the conjugated form of the French verb "passer" which means "pass" or "spend".
- Merveilleuse translates to “wonderful” or “very good or beautiful
- Une journée means "day"
Step 2. Say meilleurs Voeux
Use this sentence to say "best wishes!" or “all the best” to someone on their birthday.
- It should be noted that this is not the most common birthday greeting, but it is still acceptable.
- Meilleurs translates to "best" and Voeux translates to "wishes" or "greetings".
Step 3. Say félicitations
Use this greeting to congratulate someone on their birthday.
- This is not a common way of saying "happy birthday" to someone, but it is more commonly used to wish a happy birthday in France than in the United States.
- Félicitations translates to "congratulations", or "congratulations" in English.
Step 4. Ask quel âge avez-vous? or “how old are you?” This question is used to ask someone's age.
- Only ask this if you know the person well (such as to a friend) and you wished them a happy birthday beforehand. This question is easy to mistake for being rude or rude. And you won't ask strangers how old they are!
- Quel can mean "what" or "which".
- The French word âge has the same meaning as the English word age, which means "age".
Method 3 of 3: Longer Birthday Wishes
Step 1. Say Je vous souhaite plein de bonheur en cette journée spéciale
This sentence roughly means "I wish you a lot of happiness on your special day" or "I wish you lots of happiness on this special day."
- Je means "I" and "vous" is a direct object pronoun used to refer to "you".
- Souhaite means "desire", plein means "full", de means "from", and bonheur means "happiness."
- En means "on" or "on", cette means "this," journée means "day," and spéciale means "special" or "special".
Step 2. Tell someone Que vous puissiez tre heureux (or heureuse, if it's a girl) encore de nombreuses années
. This soulful word roughly has the same meaning as the phrase many happy years to come or "many happy years to come." By saying this you are basically wishing the person many more happy birthdays to come.
- Que here means "may (hopefully)" vous means "you", puissiez means "can", tre means "to be or so" and heureux(-se) means "happy"
- Encore means "still" or "again" and represents the "still to come" part of this sentence.
- Nombreuses means "many" and "années" means "years".
- Overall, the sentence above more or less means: May you can still be happy in many years or "hope you can still be happy for many years to come".
Step 3. Say Que tous vos désirs se réalisent
This saying means "May all your dreams/wishes/wishes come true". Or in English, May all your dreams/wishes come true.
- Tous means "all" and vos means "you".
- Désirs can mean "desire", "dream", or "hope", like the English word desire.
- Se réalisent means "to materialize" or "to become real".
