生日快樂 / 生日快乐
saang¹ jat⁶ faai³ lok⁶
The English phrase "happy birthday" is translated into Cantonese as 生日快樂 / 生日快乐 (saang¹ jat⁶ faai³ lok⁶).
This phrase is used to express good wishes to someone on their birthday.
Meaning: good wishes for a birthday (intj)
What does it mean word for word?
The phrase is composed of 生日 (birthday) and 快樂 (happy). Breaking it down further: the character 生 means birth or life, 日 means day and the word 快樂 means happy or joyful.
How do you pronounce it?
saang¹ jat⁶ faai³ lok⁶
Did you know?
- While 生日快樂 is the standard greeting, older generations may prefer the phrase 福如東海, 壽比南山, which compares the person's happiness to the East China Sea and their longevity to the Southern Mountains.
- When celebrating a birthday for an elder, it is customary to offer a 壽桃 or 'longevity peach', a steamed bun shaped like a peach, which represents immortality.
- In some traditional Cantonese households, birthdays are celebrated on the lunar calendar rather than the Gregorian calendar used in English-speaking countries.
Example sentences for Cantonese are not verified yet.
Sources
- Wiktionary, “happy birthday” translations, CC BY-SA 4.0, dump of 2026-09-26.
