Happy Birthday
Few weeks ago I have been writing about days, months and numbers. Today since someone is celebrating her birthday, its timely to know how to day the greetings in Korean. Birthday in Korean is 생일 (saeng-il) so to day happy birthday:
- 생일 축하합니다 (saeng-il chukha-hamnida) this is polite formal way to say it
- 생일 축하해요 (saeng-il chukha-haeyo) this is the casual polite way
Birth of a child is known as 탄생 (tansaeng) in Korea and birthplace would be 출생지 (chulsaengji). To ask date of birth one may use the word, 생년월일 (saeng-nyon-wo-ril).
April 9, 2008 at 7:23 am
Hi! I’ve came across your blog while I was searching for polite Korean greetings in the Internet. I have just been hired as an executive secretary in a Korean firm here in the Philippines and I’m still familiarizing myself to the ethics and etiquettes in the Korean culture. Your blog was very informative to me especially on Korean greetings. But it could have been better if you could include your blog, the proper pronunciation of these Korean phrases and greetings, aside from the Romanized translation of the Korean symbols. Thank you and keep up the good work.
December 29, 2008 at 2:09 am
hey! 4th of april is my birthday too!! haha….
THX!! WELL DONE!!
December 31, 2008 at 2:10 pm
hahaha..thnx 4 the share..im learning hangul now..its interesting since i love dbsk n ft island
January 9, 2009 at 10:43 am
thx 4 sharing ^_^
April 12, 2009 at 12:30 am
hi, i want to ask.
saeng-il chukha-hamnida means happy birthday to you or happy birthday?
April 20, 2009 at 6:03 pm
actually there is no ‘you’ in the phrase saengil chukhahamnida because subject or object can be dropped in a Korean statement. nevertheless saengil chukhahamnida can mean happy birthday to you.
May 5, 2009 at 10:15 am
Hi.. I’m from Philippines.. Me, too, is interested to learn hangul.. love dbsk so much so i’m trying to learn.. ^^,
hmmm.. is it written as saeng-il chukhahamnida? or chukha is separated from hamnida..?
May 12, 2009 at 11:03 pm
its written together and not separated =) hamnida is an auxiliary verb in formal style.
May 29, 2009 at 9:27 am
hello there, i was searching some korean word and accidently click in your blog and it was Great to have everything which i wanted here. My boyfriend is a korean and his bday is around the corner, but i need some sentences translation, wondering whether u could help me ?
May 29, 2009 at 10:24 am
hi san san thanks for dropping by a comment, i have sent you email through the address you provided.
May 29, 2009 at 3:14 pm
I want everything on your blog.! ^-^
June 2, 2009 at 1:01 am
how to reply 생일 축하해요 in casual way?
June 3, 2009 at 12:00 am
You can simply say thank you –> 고마워 (intimate) or 고마워요 (polite casual).
June 18, 2009 at 12:20 am
Ah, your blog is very helpful..
Please don’t stop blogging..
You’re a life-saver..
I love to learn 한글 but I stopped because of the lack of my vocabularies..
I’ve bookmarked your blog, and will visit it to learn more and more from you..
정말 감사합니다 ㅆ_ㅆ
June 24, 2009 at 6:04 pm
i read and learned from other sources that literally, if you break down the words from the sentence, it actually says “congratulations to your birthday”.
June 24, 2009 at 11:04 pm
yup it actually means congratulations its your birthday.
so you can also greet someone happy birthday by saying.
생일 행복합니다 or 생일 행복하세요 but this is not the common way to say it in Korean.
October 29, 2009 at 10:45 pm
thank you for the blog
stay awesome