# Happy birthday, dear friend



## TraductoraPobleSec

Dear everyone. How do you write in Chinese from Beijing "Happy birthday, my friend". In this case, the friend is a "she". Thank you very much for your help!


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## geoseraphicus

I'd write   <NAME>： 祝你生日快乐！<-Note that I left out 'dear friend'. It seems to me that 'dear friend' is a bit too formal for a birthday card or something. Addressing by name is perfectly in order (except this person is your superior.)

As a sidenote, there is no gender difference in addressing 'you'.


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## TraductoraPobleSec

So kind, Geoseraphicus! Thanks for your help!


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## AquisM

geoseraphicus said:


> As a sidenote, there is no gender difference in addressing 'you'.


在大陆，人们常用女字旁的妳吗? 在香港，通常报章、新闻、书籍里都会偶然见到。


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## viajero_canjeado

AquisM said:


> 在大陆，人们常用女字旁的妳吗? 在香港，通常报章、新闻、书籍里都会偶然见到。



這個問題曾經將討論過：請看下面的thread:

http://forum.wordreference.com/showthread.php?t=2179645
（好像結果是，在大陸「妳」字比較罕見。）


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## HongKonger

People often use the word "您" to express a warmer feeling - 祝您生日快乐！ Besides, I often use the word "妳" if the one is my girl friend.


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## SuperXW

HongKonger said:


> People often use the word "您" to express a warmer feeling - 祝您生日快乐！ Besides, I often use the word "妳" if the one is my girl friend.


In the mainland, 您 is used only in very formal occasions, or to show your respect to your parents, teachers, elderly etc.
In Hong Kong, some people believe that 您 is "to call you with heart", so they use 您 in sentences like "我爱您", to express a warmer feeling.
But this does not work in Mainland China, there 您 signifies the distance, while 你 feels much closer.


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## YangMuye

SuperXW said:


> But this does not work in Mainland China, there 您 signifies the distance, while 你 feels much closer.



您 was originally used as the contraction of 你们 several hundred years ago. People use 您 instead 你 when they dare not address the listener directly, to avoid utterance directed against the listener.


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## Learner19

Hello! 
There is no gender in Chinese language, so you don't need to mind if it is she or he. The translation you need it "祝你生日快乐，亲爱的朋友！"


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## OneStroke

YangMuye said:


> 您 was originally used as the contraction of 你们 several hundred years ago. People use 您 instead 你 when they dare not address the listener directly, to avoid utterance directed against the listener.



People often avoid the 你 altogether in very formal situations in Cantonese. Isn't it funny that 您 is original a contraction of 你们 just as 'vous', the formal 'you' in French, is the second person plural pronoun? 

I believe 妳 is always wrong, even though it is in (un)common usage. It is not as widely recognised as 她, which, unlike its second-person opposite number, caught up and became standard.


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## Youngfun

I always see 妳 in Hong Kong movies subtitles and song lyrics. I thought it was a particularity of 繁体字


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## AquisM

It's used mostly in HK and Taiwan (in fact it's so uncommon in the Mainland that my 漢語拼音 input doesn't recognise it), but as OneStroke has pointed out, 妳 is not as common as 她. Most people wouldn't put 妳 when writing casually and without thought, whereas the opposite happens with 她.


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## xiaolijie

AquisM said:


> 妳 is not as common as 她. Most people wouldn't put 妳 when writing casually and without thought, whereas the opposite happens with 她.


That is because, I think, 他/她 plays some part in disambiguating writing whereas the choice of 你/妳 is purely stylistic and not functional (Since you use 你/妳 to address the addressee directly, the adressee doesn't have to check his/ her sex first to understand who you're talking to  )


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