cuándo es tu cumpleaños
/kwando es tu kumpleaɲos/from spelling rules
In Spanish, "what your birthday is" is expressed as cuándo es tu cumpleaños.
This phrase is used to ask about the date on which a person was born. Although English speakers often say "what your birthday is," Spanish speakers idiomatically use the word for "when" to ask this question.
What does it mean word for word?
The phrase literally translates to "when is your birthday".
Which one should you use?
In Spanish, you use cuándo (when) instead of qué (what) to ask this question.
Is it said differently in some regions?
In certain regions, such as Spain and parts of Latin America, it is common to shorten cumpleaños to cumple in the informal expression ¿Cuándo es tu cumple?
How does it change in a sentence?
To adjust the level of politeness, you can change the possessive adjective: use tu for informal situations and su for formal or polite situations.
Did you know?
- In many Spanish speaking cultures, the birthday celebration begins with la mordida, where the guest of honor is encouraged to take a bite of the cake before anyone else, often resulting in their face being pushed into the frosting.
- While cumpleaños is the standard term, some regions use the phrase día del santo to celebrate the feast day of the saint for whom a person was named.
- The Spanish word for 'is', es, shares a common ancestor with the English word 'is' and the Sanskrit word 'asti'.
Examples in context
- Mi cumpleaños es el 15 de enero.My birthday is January 15th.
- No sé cuándo es tu cumpleaños.I don't know when your birthday is.
- ¿Me puedes decir cuándo es tu cumpleaños?Can you tell me when your birthday is?
- Quiero saber cuándo es tu cumpleaños para darte un regalo.I want to know when your birthday is to give you a gift.
Example conversation
Two friends are chatting about their upcoming plans.
- ElenaOye Mateo, ¿cuándo es tu cumpleaños?Hey Mateo, when is your birthday?
- MateoEs el quince de mayo.It is May 15th.
- Elena¡Qué bien! Quiero celebrarlo contigo.That's great! I want to celebrate it with you.
- MateoGracias, Elena, sería genial.Thanks, Elena, that would be great.
Sources
- IPA marked “from spelling rules” is derived from standard Spanish spelling, where Wiktionary gives none.
- Word origins: Wiktionary entries cumpleaños, cuándo, es, tu, CC BY-SA 4.0.
