| Welcome to Fun and Easy Chinese by ChineseClass101.com! |
| 嗨大家好，我是李殷如. Hài dàjiā hǎo, Wǒ shì Lǐ Yīnrú. |
| Hi everyone, Yinru Li here. |
| Can you say and sing “Happy Birthday” in Chinese? |
| If you’re a Chinese language learner, and if you enjoy celebrating birthdays, “Happy Birthday” is a must-know phrase for you to learn! |
| In this lesson, you’ll learn how to say “Happy Birthday” in Chinese, how to sing the “Happy Birthday” song in Chinese in two ways, and other phrases to wish someone a happy special day! |
| Happy birthday in Chinese is 生日快乐 shēng rì kuài lè [slow] 生日快乐。 |
| 生日shēng rì means “birthday” 生日。快乐 kuài lè means “happy” 快乐. |
| Together 生日快乐 “birthday happy” or in the English order “Happy Birthday”. 生日快乐。 |
| If you’d like to wish someone a happy certain year-old birthday, you can put the year before 生日快乐. For example, Happy three year-old birthday is 三岁生日快乐 sān suì shēng rì kuài lè. |
| 三 sān is “three” 三，岁 suì means “year” or “age”. 岁. 三岁 sān suì is three years old 三岁. Together 三岁生日快乐 [slow] 三岁生日快乐 |
| And 三十岁生日快乐 sān shí suì shēng rì kuài lè is Happy thirty-year-old birthday. 三十 sān shí “thirty” 三十。三十岁生日快乐. |
| In China, like many other countries in the world, people also like to gather around the birthday cake and sing the happy birthday song to the birthday boy or girl before blowing out candles. The song is the same melody as the one that everybody knows. There are two versions of lyrics of this song. |
| The more simple version, which is the more common one, has only one phrase and it is repeated four times throughout the whole song. And this phrase is 祝你生日快乐 zhù nǐ shēng rì kuài lè. |
| We know the second part of this phrase 生日快乐 meaning “happy birthday”. The first word 祝 zhù means “to wish”. 祝. And the second word 你 nǐ means “you” 你。祝你 zhù nǐ together means “wish you” 祝你, and altogether 祝你生日快乐 is “wish you a happy birthday”. 祝你生日快乐. |
| So to put 祝你生日快乐 in the melody, it sounds like this… |
| 祝你生日快乐， |
| 祝你生日快乐， |
| 祝你生日快乐， |
| 祝你生日快乐。 |
| There’s another version of the Chinese happy birthday song with a few more phrases. Growing up in China, I didn’t know about this version until I went to a karaoke place and saw the added phrases in the Happy Birthday song. This version is not used quite often, but it’s good for you to know and learn a couple more Chinese phrases! |
| The lyrics go like this: |
| 祝你生日快乐，zhù nǐ shēng rì kuài lè |
| 祝你生日快乐，zhù nǐ shēng rì kuài lè |
| 祝你幸福，祝你健康，zhù nǐ xìng fú, zhù nǐ jiàn kāng |
| 祝你前途光明。zhù nǐ qián tú guāng míng |
| 祝你生日快乐，zhù nǐ shēng rì kuài lè |
| 祝你生日快乐，zhù nǐ shēng rì kuài lè |
| 祝你幸福，祝你健康，zhù nǐ xìng fú , zhù nǐ jiàn kāng |
| 拥有温暖家庭。yōng yǒu wēn nuǎn jiā tíng |
| The first new phrase in this set of lyrics is: 祝你幸福 zhù nǐ xìng fú (slow) 祝你幸福 zhù nǐ xìng fú |
| 祝你 zhù nǐ，as we know now, means “to wish you”. It is followed by 幸福 xìng fú , meaning “happy” or “blessed”. 幸福. Together 祝你幸福 is “wish you happy”. |
| The next 祝你 is 祝你健康 zhù nǐ jiàn kāng (slow) 祝你健康 zhù nǐ jiàn kāng 健康 jiàn kāng means “healthy” 健康。祝你健康 “wish you good health” 祝你健康. |
| And the one after 祝你健康 is 祝你前途光明 zhù nǐ qián tú guāng míng. 前途 qián tú literally means “the road ahead”, but it is often translated as “future”. 前途. 光明 guāng míng means “bright” 光明. 祝你前途光明 together means “wish you a bright future”. 祝你前途光明。 |
| The last phrase of these lyrics is 拥有温暖家庭 yōng yǒu wēn nuǎn jiā tíng (slow) 拥有温暖家庭. First phrase 拥有 yōng yǒu means “to have” or “to possess”, 拥有. 温暖 wēn nuǎn means “warm” 温暖. And last phrase 家庭 jiā tíng means “family”家庭. Altogether 拥有温暖家庭 means “to have a warm family”. 拥有温暖家庭. |
| Now let’s read the whole lyrics together. |
| 祝你生日快乐， |
| 祝你生日快乐， |
| 祝你幸福，祝你健康， |
| Wish you happy, wish you good health, |
| 祝你前途光明。 |
| Wish you a bright future. |
| 祝你生日快乐， |
| 祝你生日快乐， |
| 祝你幸福，祝你健康， |
| Wish you happy, wish you good health, |
| 拥有温暖家庭。 |
| And have a warm family. |
| Ready to sing it? Let’s sing it slow. |
| {祝你生日快乐， |
| 祝你生日快乐， |
| 祝你幸福，祝你健康， |
| 祝你前途光明。 |
| 祝你生日快乐， |
| 祝你生日快乐， |
| 祝你幸福，祝你健康， |
| 拥有温暖家庭。} |
| Not only on birthdays do we wish others happiness; there are many other special days we can say “happy special day!” to each other! |
| In Chinese, holiday greeting phrases also use the word 快乐 “happy”。And the pattern is [holiday] + 快乐。 |
| For example, 新年 xīn nián is ”New Year”. 新 xīn means “new” and 年 nián means “year” 新年. 新年快乐 xīn nián kuài lè is “New Year Happy” or in the English order “Happy New Year” 新年快乐。 |
| Even though celebrating Christmas is not a tradition in China, people are still familiar with this holiday and love the Christmas spirit. You can wish others a Merry Christmas by saying 圣诞快乐 shèng dàn kuài lè. 圣诞 shèng dàn means “Christmas” 圣诞. 圣诞快乐 shèng dàn kuài lè “Merry Christmas” 圣诞快乐. |
| You can also use ...day + happy pattern on anniversaries. |
| Happy Anniversary in Chinese is 周年快乐 zhōu nián kuài lè. 周年 zhōu nián means “anniversary”. 周 zhōu means “circle” 周 and 年 nián means “year”年 .周年 is “a circle year” or “anniversary”. 周年快乐 zhōu nián kuài lè “Happy Anniversary” 周年快乐. |
| We can add more information before 周年快乐, just like we did with 生日快乐. |
| 结婚十周年快乐 jié hūn shí zhōu nián kuài lè means “Happy 10th wedding anniversary”. 结婚 jié hūn means “to get married” or “to be married” 结婚, and 十 shí is “ten” 十, so 结婚十周年 jié hūn shí zhōu nián means “ten years of being married” or “the tenth anniversary of being married”. Altogether 结婚十周年快乐. [slow] 结婚十周年快乐。 |
| Let’s review the key phrases we learned in this lesson. |
| The four character phrase for “Happy birthday” in Chinese is… |
| 生日快乐 生日快乐 |
| If the person you’re saying 生日快乐 to is turning 3 years old, the more specific phrase is… |
| 三岁生日快乐 三岁生日快乐 |
| And what is the phrase for “wish you” ? |
| 祝你 祝你 |
| So “Wish you a happy birthday.” like in the birthday song is.. |
| 祝你生日快乐 祝你生日快乐 |
| We can use the special day + 快乐 pattern to say “Happy New Year”, which in Chinese is… |
| 新年快乐 新年快乐 |
| Great job! |
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| ..and you'll learn all of the must-know words and phrases for each. |
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| That will be all for this lesson. 祝你天天快乐！Zhù nǐ tiān tiān kuài lè! Wish you happy every day! 再见！Zài jiàn! Thank you for watching! |
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