Happy Birthday « Daily Dose of Hangul (한글)

Happy Birthday

April 4, 2008 at 6:05 am | In Greetings | 17 Comments

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).

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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.

Comment by catnappy — April 9, 2008 #

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hey! 4th of april is my birthday too!! haha….
THX!! WELL DONE!!

Comment by JiaYee — December 29, 2008 #

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hahaha..thnx 4 the share..im learning hangul now..its interesting since i love dbsk n ft island

Comment by ida zumi luv dbsk island — December 31, 2008 #

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thx 4 sharing ^_^

Comment by Tania — January 9, 2009 #

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hi, i want to ask.
saeng-il chukha-hamnida means happy birthday to you or happy birthday?

Comment by happy-eyo — April 12, 2009 #

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- 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.
  
  Comment by janey_bei — April 20, 2009 #
  
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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..?

Comment by shim chinyi — May 5, 2009 #

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- its written together and not separated =) hamnida is an auxiliary verb in formal style.
  
  Comment by janey_bei — May 12, 2009 #
  
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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 ?

Comment by san san — May 29, 2009 #

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- hi san san thanks for dropping by a comment, i have sent you email through the address you provided.
  
  Comment by janey_bei — May 29, 2009 #
  
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I want everything on your blog.! ^-^

Comment by hazhuna — May 29, 2009 #

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how to reply 생일 축하해요 in casual way?

Comment by jeany — June 2, 2009 #

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- You can simply say thank you –> 고마워 (intimate) or 고마워요 (polite casual).
  
  Comment by janey_bei — June 3, 2009 #
  
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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

Comment by K10n — June 18, 2009 #

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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”.

Comment by Jaycee — June 24, 2009 #

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- 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.
  
  Comment by janey_bei — June 24, 2009 #
  
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thank you for the blog stay awesome

Comment by JonnyDJs — October 29, 2009 #

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