Spanish Language Stack Exchange is a question and answer site for linguists, teachers, students and Spanish language enthusiasts in general wanting to discuss the finer points of the language. It only takes a minute to sign up.
Sign up to join this community
Say you have a Spanish friend and today is his/her birthday. How can you say "happy birthday" in an appropriate way?
Muchas felicidades
Is my guess but it probably depends on the context and on how much confidence you have with the person.
Also: is there any other sentence you can say after that? Somethink like "I hope you have a great day".
I would imagine something like
Que cumplas muchos más
Well, I don't know in Spain but in Latin America we say
Feliz cumpleaños = Happy birthday
Feliz cumpleaños [nombre] = Happy birthday [name]
Feliz cumpleaños [nombre de cariño] = Happy birthday [special name] (For close friends)
To all these expressions you can add many phrases where you express your enthusiasm or your care
Feliz cumpleaños, muchas felicidades
Feliz cumpleaños, que lo pases [muy feliz / muy bien / excelente]
Feliz cumpleaños, muchas felicidades, que lo pases [muy feliz / muy bien / excelente]
¡Feliz cumpleaños y que cumplas muchos más!*
¡Feliz cumpleaños, muchas felicidades y [muchos] éxitos!
Usually we start with feliz cumpleaños and then we add something else. Sometimes it depends on the relationship with the other person and that could be followed with a half hug or a full hug or just a handshake
At work, strictly in Latin America some people develop a strong relationship with their bosses, so they can give a half hug, it means you approach to the other and your left hand on the back of the other person and your right hand on his right arm (I'm just trying to give an example not a rule). Women in Latin America are more emotional and they can give a full hug with their female bosses or co-workers but with males are more formal. Only if that girl is your partner in crime, she will give you a full hug.
Remember it depends on how close is your relationship with the other person.
In North America, at work, they tend to say happy birthday face to face without contact (mostly but not a rule) and that's it. They follow their lives.
Payaso Plin Plin:
Al payaso Plin Plin
se le pinchó la nariz
y con un estornudo
hizo fuerte ¡Achís!
Cumpleaños feliz:
¡Que los cumplas Feliz!
¡Que los cumplas Feliz!
¡Que los cumplas [*name here*]!
¡Que los cumplas Feliz!
Feliz en tu día
¡Feliz, feliz en tu día!
¡Ojalá que te pise un tranvía!
¡Que comas batata podrida!
¡Y que cumplas para atrás!
Original: Feliz en tu día
Feliz, feliz en tu día
Amiguito que Dios te bendiga
Que reine la paz en tu día
Y que cumplas muchos más
I will make an answer out of the commentaries I made:
Both are correct. "Feliz Cumpleaños! Muchas Felicidades". A hug, and then "Que cumplas muchos más". You can also say "Ojalá que sean más" (Hopefully they will be more).
A birthday hug is customary among everybody regardless familiarity, class or whatever factor. At least I can say that for Chile and Spain. Is completely normal that, say, the CEO comes and give a handshake and a hug to an employee for her birthday.
With respect to some comments I've read. Cultural aspects DO matter in the study of any language. You just can't learn a language without getting involved in the culture it is spoken within. Is like trying to learn japanese without understanding the strict social norms they have (You need to conjugate verbs based on your relative social standing of your listeners).
