How to Say Happy Birthday in Italian

The most direct way to say “happy birthday” in Italian is “buon compleanno,” but there are still a lot of familiar expressions to wish a happy birthday. Besides, you probably also want to familiarize yourself with birthday phrases and happy birthday songs in Italian.

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Happy birthday

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Say “buon compleanno!” ^{[1] X Research Source} This is the most direct way to say “happy birthday” in Italian, and it actually means “nice birthday”.

Buon means “nice” and compleanno means “birthday .
The pronunciation of this whole sentence is: bwon kom-pleh-ahn-noh .

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Congratulations with the phrase “tanti auguri!” ^{[2] X Research Source} This sentence does not translate as “happy birthday”. In fact, the Italian word for “birthday” ( compleanno ) doesn’t appear in this sentence at all. Even so, this sentence means “with best wishes” and is a common way of saying it in Italian when you want to congratulate someone on their birthday.

Tanti means “many” and auguri is the plural form of the noun augurio , meaning “wish”. The whole sentence translates as “many wishes”.
The pronunciation of this sentence is: tahn-tee ahw-goo-ree

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Try using “cento di questi giorni!” ^{[3] X Research Source} Here’s another Italian sentence you can use to wish a happy birthday even though it doesn’t mention the birthday. In fact, this sentence is meant to wish someone 100 more birthdays or a hundred years of life.

Cento means “one hundred”, di means “of”, questi means “these”, and giorni is “day” in the plural. The literal translation of this sentence is “There are 100 more times like this!”
Pronounce the whole sentence as: chehn-toh dee kweh-stee jeohr-nee
Note that you can shorten this to “cent’anni”, which means “100 more years!”
- The pronunciation of the short sentence is: chehn-tah-nee

Some ways to say on birthday

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Send greetings directly to “festeggiato.” ^{[4] X Research Source} This Italian word is equivalent to “birthday boy” or “birthday girl”. However, when translated literally, it will be “the person who is celebrating his birthday”.

The word festeggiato is taken from the verb festeggiare , which means “to celebrate”.
The pronunciation of this word is: feh-steh-jia-toh

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Ask the birthday person’s age by saying “quanti anni hai?” ^{[5] X Research Source} This is an indirect way of asking age, and this question does not mean “How old are you?” Instead, it has a softer meaning, used to ask the birthday person “what birthday is this?”

Quanti means “how much”, anni is “five” in the plural, and two is “yes” in the second person singular.
The pronunciation of this question is: kwahn-tee ahn-nee ai

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Say someone has grown up with the phrase “essere avanti con gli anni”. This actually means that someone is “aged”, but you would use it as a compliment to mean that person is older and more skilled.

Essere means “to become”, avanti means “before”, con is “with”, gli is like the English article “the” and anni means “five” in the plural. When put together, this sentence means “to become older before your age”, or indirectly “to grow up”.
The pronunciation of this sentence is: ehs-ser-eh ah-vahn-tee kohn ghlee ahn-nee

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Announce your birthday by saying “oggi compio gli anni”. With this sentence, you are saying “today is my birthday” indirectly, but the literal translation would be “today I completed the old year”.

Oggi is “today”, compio means “to complete” – first person singular from the verb compiere , gli is the English article “the”, and anni is the plural year.
The pronunciation of this sentence is: oh-jee kohm-pioh ghlee ahn-nee

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Reveal your age by saying “sto per compiere ___ anni”. You often use this sentence to say that you are about to turn a new age (fill in the blank), but it is more common among young people than with older people. The direct meaning of this sentence is “I have just completed (number of) years”

To state your age, simply add your age in the blank. For example, if you turned 18, you would say “Sto per compiere diciotto anni”.
Sto means “I am”, per means “to be”, compiere means “enough” or “complete”, and anni means “five” in the plural.
Pronounce this sentence as: stoh pehr kohm-pier-eh ___ ahn-nee

Sing Happy Birthday

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Use the same tune. Even though the words are different, you still sing “Happy Birthday” in Italian with the same tune as in English.

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Sing “tanti auguri” a few times. The most popular lyrics in “Happy Birthday” usually don’t mention birthdays. You would use the indirect “with many best wishes” instead of “happy birthday” in standard lyrics.

After this sentence will be “a te” ( ah tee ), which means “to you”.
The lyrics are: ^{[6] X Research Source}
- Tanti auguri a te,
- Tanti auguri a te,
- Tanti auguri a (Name of birthday person),
- Tanti auguri a te!

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Can be replaced by changing to “buon compleanno”. Although not used much, you can use the phrase “happy birthday” directly in place of standard English lyrics.

As with the “tanti auguri” version, you’ll need to add “a te” ( ah tee ), which means “to you” after each sentence.
With this version, the lyrics will be: ^{[7] X Research Source}
- Buon compleanno a te,
- Buon compleanno a te,
- Buon compleanno a (Name of birthday person),
- Buon compleanno a te!

Steps

Happy birthday

Some ways to say on birthday

Sing Happy Birthday

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