Max is eight, and the birthday of his grandmother was the first occasion on which a thing in Russian that had been picked out by him on his own was something he wished to say. She lives outside Moscow, the call home falls on a Sunday, and his mother gave him the words that go at the top of it, С днём рождения. The words were said back twice by Max, the middle of the long one was got wrong by him, and a further attempt was made until a clap was given by баба on the screen. The phrase is the one that is reached for by every Russian speaker, it is shorter than it is taken to be, and it is a thing that can be held ready by a child before the candles are lit.
How to say happy birthday in Russian
The form by which happy birthday is given in Russian is С днём рождения, the pronunciation of which is «s dnyom rozh DYEH nee ya,» and it is the DYEH in the middle on which the stress of the phrase is carried. Within it there is to be found neither a word for happy nor a word for birthday of the kind that is found within the English. What it says, word for word, is «with the day of birth,» and the congratulation is understood without being spoken, the way «cheers» carries a whole sentence in English. For Max the part that was worth the knowing was this, that happy and birthday were not being translated by him one at a time, but a single set phrase was being picked up, of the kind that is used by Russians for everything from a child’s party to an office card.
How to write happy birthday in Russian
Written out, the phrase is С днём рождения. The first letter is a capital С, which looks like an English C but by which the sound «s» is given, and the two words that follow it are kept in lowercase. The dots over the ё in днём are dropped in everyday typing, so the same phrase is met online as С днем рождения, and the two of them are read in the same way. On a card it is usually closed by Russians with an exclamation point, С днём рождения!, in the way that it would be closed by an English speaker. When it was copied onto the card that was being mailed by Max, the letters were drawn slowly by him, since the ж and the long рождения were new to his hand, and the whole wish came out to three words by which both the saying and the spelling could now be done by him.
A warmer birthday message in Russian
С днём рождения on its own can feel a little bare in a written message, so Russians usually add a line of good wishes under it. A common one is Желаю счастья и здоровья, which is said «zhe LAH yu SHAST ya ee zda ROH vya» and by which «I wish you happiness and health» is meant, and the matter of health is raised in Russian birthday wishes to a far greater degree than it is in the English ones. A more formal opening, of the kind that is written by an adult to a person who is not well known to them, is Поздравляю с днём рождения, which is said «pozd rav LYAH yu s dnyom rozh DYEH nee ya» and by which «I congratulate you on your birthday» is meant. What was kept by Max was short. С днём рождения was written by him across the top for баба and Желаю здоровья underneath, for the reason that the wish for health was the one that had always been given to him by her.
What to know before you send it
Two small things keep a birthday wish from being landed wrong. The first is the matter of timing, since С днём рождения will not be said by many Russians before the actual day, for the reason that the wishing of it early is held to bring bad luck, which is why the Sunday that was баба’s real birthday was waited for by Max rather than the call a week before. The second is the matter of flowers, if any are sent, since a bouquet for a happy occasion in Russia is made to carry an odd number of stems, while an even number is kept for funerals. Of the Happy Birthday song that is sung by English speakers there is no Russian version. The tune that is sung by Russians in its stead is taken from an old cartoon called Cheburashka, and it is a tune by which a child brought up on Russian cartoons has, for the most part, already been learned.
Where a child gets the sounds right
A word like рождения is easier to get right when a child hears it said back and is corrected on the spot, which is what a lesson gives that a page cannot. At our school the groups are kept small, a couple of meetings are held each week, and the hour is given to the saying and the using of real phrases of this kind rather than to the reciting of rules. The first two lessons are free and come one after the other. The child is met first by a methodologist, by whom the level at which she stands is found, and after that a full group lesson is joined by her with a teacher, so that a parent is able to watch a child pass from the sounding out of a birthday line to the saying of it to a grandparent without a stumble.
Questions that are commonly asked about the saying of happy birthday in Russian
01How do you say happy birthday in Russian?
С днём рождения, said «s dnyom rozh DYEH nee ya.» It is the universal phrase, used for a child’s party and a formal card alike, and word for word it means «with the day of birth.»
02How do you pronounce С днём рождения?
It is said «s dnyom rozh DYEH nee ya,» with the stress placed on the DYEH in the middle. At the front the с, the д, and the н are run together as «s dnyom,» which is the part on which most English speakers are slowed down.
03How do you write and spell happy birthday in Russian?
С днём рождения, with a capital С at the front and the rest kept lowercase. The dots on the ё are often left off in typing, so С днем рождения is the same phrase and is held to be just as correct in a message.
04What does С днём рождения mean literally?
«With the day of birth.» There is no separate word in it for happy or for birthday, since the congratulation is built into the set phrase itself.
05Is there a Russian happy birthday song?
Not the one English speakers sing. Russians often sing a tune from the Cheburashka cartoon instead, which most Russian speaking kids already know.
