TRANSCRIPT OF THE ABOVE VIDEO: Alternative Ways To Say 'Happy Birthday' in English - Improve Your Natural English Speaking Skills

Hi everyone, its Nicole here, and I'm answering another one of your questions.

This week is my little daughter's birthday, so I'm very excited and I'm busy preparing the most wonderful day and the most exciting birthday party for her.

But, the reason why I'm telling you this is one of my students, when I told her about my daughter's birthday, she said to me, Nicole, how do you actually say happy birthday in English? What are some different ways of saying happy birthday so that when we write a birthday card or an email, we've got something nice to say. 

Well, look, that's a really really good question, and one that I'm more than happy to answer for you.

Yeah, look, it's a beautiful thing to say happy birthday and to wish someone a special day, it's even more beautiful to write your greetings on a card or in an email or as a text message because you show the person that you're thinking of them.

So, look, I’ve thought of a few alternatives so that you don't just say happy birthday, so that you've got something else, something different to say to make it more interesting and special. Are you ready?

Ok, so obviously we could say ‘Happy birthday’, we could also say ‘Wishing you the happiest of birthdays’ or ‘Congratulations on your birthday’ or ‘Wishing you a wonderful day’ or ‘Happy Birthday my dear friend’ or even ‘Happy happy birthday my dear friend’ or ‘Many happy returns’ - that's a little bit more formal if you don't know the person as well.

‘Have a great day, you deserve it’ that's nice, or ‘All the best for you on your special day’ or even ‘All the best for your special day’ or ‘May your birthday be filled with love’ oh, that's beautiful, or ‘May your birthday be filled with love and laughter’ oh, that's even more beautiful, or even nicer ‘May your birthday be filled with love, laughter, and lots of birthday cake’

You could even say ‘I hope you have a wonderful day’ or ‘Sending you lots of birthday wishes’ or ‘Warmest birthday greetings to you’ or ‘Warmest birthday wishes to you’ or ‘Have a fabulous day’ or ‘Have a fun filled birthday’ or ‘Wishing you many more years of happiness’ or ‘Wishing you many more candles to blow out’ oh, that's nice, or ‘It's time to celebrate. Happy birthday. I hope you celebrate your special day in style’ Oh!

You could also say ‘A million birthday wishes to you’ ‘Sending birthday love and hugs’ or ‘Happy day of birth’ ‘Hope your birthday is as amazing as you are’ Oh, I like that one. That's my favourite, or ‘I raise my glass to you on your special day’ or ‘May today be as special as you are’ or ‘Wishing you health and happiness today and always’ isn't that lovely.

So there's lots of different ways there to wish someone a happy birthday, or you could even write out the birthday song, you know, happy birthday to you, happy birthday to you, happy birthday, dear Nicole, happy birthday to you, hip hip hooray, hip hip hooray, hip hip hooray. Do you have a birthday song?

Maybe you could even, I don't know, sing the birthday song, give a voice message of the birthday song in your language, or instead of saying happy birthday, you could say happy birthday in your language as well, and then write one of these lovely expressions underneath, there's so much that you can do, but the most important thing is to make someone's day by wishing them a really beautiful happy special birthday filled with love and happiness and joy and laughter, a day that they won't forget.

Anyway, there you go. Lots of wonderful alternatives for happy birthday. I wish you a happy birthday in advance for whenever that will be.

Thanks for listening. I hope that you found this video helpful. Bye.