How to Say Happy Birthday in German

The most common way to say happy birthday in German is to say “Alles Gute zum Geburtstag” and “Herzlichen Glückwunsch zum Geburtstag”. However, there are many other ways to say happy birthday in this language. Here are some examples to help you.

Table of Contents

Basic greetings in German

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Say “Alles Gute zum Geburtstag!”. ^{[1] X Research Source} This is the phrase “happy birthday” used in German and it really means “wish you all the best on your birthday”.

Alles is a pronoun that means “everything” or “all”.
Gute is a variant of the German adjective “gut”, which means “nice”.
The word zum is a German preposition “zu”, meaning “to” or “for”.
Geburtstag means “birthday” in German.
The pronunciation of this whole happy birthday sentence is ah-less goo-teh tsuhm geh-buhrtz-tahg .

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Congratulate by saying “Herzlichen Glückwunsch zum Geburtstag”. This is another way of saying that is also very common to use for birthdays.

This sentence is translated as “Sincerely congratulate you on your birthday” or “May you receive a lot of joy”.
Herzlichen is derived from the German adjective “herzlich”, which means “sincere”, “sincerely” or “kindly”.
Glückwunsch means congratulations .
The word zum means “in (day)” or “for” and Geburtstag means “birthday”.
The pronunciation of the whole sentence is hairtz-lich(the “ch” sound is pronounced as in “aCH” not as the ch in “CHair”)-enn glook-vuhnsh tsoom geh-buhrtz-tahg .

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Say “Herzlichen Glückwunsch nachträglich” or “Nachträglich alles Gute zum Geburtstag” when congratulating late. Both of these sentences mean “happy belated birthday”.

Nachträglich means “after” or “behind”.
Herzlichen Glückwunsch nachträglich means “Sincerely belated birthday”. Pronounce hairtz-lich(sound “ch” as in “ach” not “ch” in word “CHair”)-enn glook-vuhnsh nach(sound “ch” as in “ach” not “ch” in from “CHair”)-traygh-lich(sound “ch” as in “ach” not “ch” in word “CHair”) .
“Nachträglich alles Gute zum Geburtstag” means “wish you all the best for your late birthday”. Pronounced nach(as in “aCH”)-traygh-lich(as in “aCH”) ah-less goo-teh tsoom geh-buhrtz-tahg .

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Use the phrase “Alles das Beste zum Geburtstag!” This is another way to say “Wish you all the best on your birthday”.

Alles means “all” or “everything”, “zum” means “for” and Geburtstag means “birthday”.
Das Beste means “the best”. ^{[2] X Research Source}
The way to pronounce this sentence is ah-less dahss behsteh tsoom geh-buhrtz-tahg .

Longer birthday greetings

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Say “Wir wünschen Ihnen einen wunderschönen Tag”. This sentence is to wish a certain guy or girl a great birthday.

Wir means “we”.
Wünschen is a German verb that means “to wish”, “to wish” or “to wish”.
Ihnen is a polite way of referring to “you.” To be less formal, change the word Ihnen to Dir , which is the usual “you.” The pronunciation of Dir is deahr .
Einen means “one”.
Wunderschönen means “lovely”, “wonderful” or “beautiful”.
Tag means “day”.
This sentence is pronounced veer vuhnshen ee-nen aye-nen vuhn-deher-shuhn-nen tahg .

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The greeting “Auf dass Ihr Tag mit Liebe und Freude erfüllt ist”. This sentence means “Hope you will have a day filled with love and happiness.”

Auf means “in (day)”
Dass is a German conjunction meaning “that”.
Ihr” is a formal way of saying “yours”. To say it in a friendly way, you can use Dein , pronounced dine .
Tag means “day”.
Mit means “with”.
Liebe means “love”. The word und means “and” and Freude means “joy” or “happiness”.
The word erfüllt ist is translated as “overwhelming”.
The pronunciation of the whole sentence is owf dahss eer tahg mitt lee-beh oond froy-deh ehr-fopt ist .

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Say “Schade, dass wir nicht mitfeiern können” when you can’t be with them. This sentence means “Sorry we can’t come to celebrate with you”. Use this when congratulating over the phone, writing a card, or writing an email because you can’t send greetings in person.

Schade means “regrettable”.
The word dass means “that” and wir means “we”.
The word nicht means “not” and können means “maybe”.
Mitfeiern means “to have fun together”.
This sentence is pronounced shah-deh dahss veer neecht (sound “ch” as in “ach” not “ch” in word “CHair”) mitt-fy-ehrn keu-nenn .

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Ask “Wie geht’s dem Geburtstagkind?”. This question means “how was your birthday, boy?” or “how was your birthday, girl?”

Wie geht’s is an interjection in German, meaning “how?”
The word dem is an article in German.
Geburtstagkind means “birthday boy” or “birthday girl”.
The pronunciation of this whole sentence is vee gates dehm geh-buhrtz-tahg-kint .

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Ask “Wie alt bist du?”. This question is used to ask age.

Wie means “how much” and alt means “age. ” Bist means “is”.
The word du means “you.” In a formal context, you can replace du with Sie” and the accompanying verb “sind” instead of “bist”, the complete sentence would be “Wie alt sind Sie?” .
Pronounce the whole sentence as vee ahlt bist due (or “vee ahlt zindt zee”).

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Congratulate by saying “Alles Liebe zum Geburtstag”. This sentence means “so much love on the birthday”.

Alles means “all” or “everything”. The phrase “zum Geburtstag” means “for your birthday”.
Liebe means “to love”.
This sentence is pronounced ah-less lee-beh tsoom geh-buhrtz-tahg .

Steps

Basic greetings in German

Longer birthday greetings

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