# Happy Birthday



## Arzhela

Hello everyone,
Coudl someone tell me how to say "Happy birthday" in hebrew please ?
Thank you very much in advance.


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## Arzhela

I found out the answer (well, I think...)
Le yôm-ha chanah / ליום־השנה


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## Flaminius

Welcome to the Hebrew forum. 

The translation is יום הולדת שמח.  Performing a quick search would have lead you to this thread.


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## Arzhela

Flaminius said:


> Performing a quick search would have lead you to this thread.


Thank you very much Flaminius. I'm sorry but I don't even know how to search an hebrew word here  (I know for English, French, Spanish, Italian...but not Hebrew...)
But is  "Le yôm-ha chanah" right anyway ? I guess it's quite wrong too...
Thank you for your answer in advance


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## Flaminius

Arzhela said:


> (...) I don't even know how to search an hebrew word here  (I know for English, French, Spanish, Italian...but not Hebrew...)


You could have looked for a thread in Hebrew forum that has "happy birthday" in the title.



> But is  "Le yôm-ha chanah" right anyway ? I guess it's quite wrong too...
> Thank you for your answer in advance


Yom ha-shana is anniversary of someone's death.


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## scriptum

Flaminius said:


> Yom ha-shana is anniversary of someone's death.


 
Is it? To the best of my understanding, it could be the anniversary of just anything:
יום השנה לניצחון על גרמניה
יום השנה לקיצוצים בתקציבים החברתיים
יום השנה ה-125 להולדת מוסטפא קמאל
לקרב על סטלינגרד
etc., etc.


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## Flaminius

Thank you for the correction, scriptum.  I seem to have automatically translated יום השנה into _Yahrzeit_.


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## Arzhela

Thank you both of you !


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## Nunty

Maybe it will clarify a little if I say that "Happy Birthday" in Hebrew means "Happy having-being-born", more or less. In other words, it is much closer to the English expression than to the French one.


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## Arzhela

Nun-Translator said:


> Maybe it will clarify a little if I say that "Happy Birthday" in Hebrew means "Happy having-being-born", more or less. In other words, it is much closer to the English expression than to the French one.


Thank you Nun-Tranlator. Nice "to read" you again... So I just can write to a friend : יום הולדת שמח or Le Yôm-ha-chanah. I just want to surprise him and to please him by telling him "happy birthday" like a good French friend


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## Nunty

You tell your friend יום הולדת שמח. The other phrase is never used in this sense at all.


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## Arzhela

Nun-Translator said:


> You tell your friend יום הולדת שמח. The other phrase is never used in this sense at all.


Thank you very much indeed !


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## PocketWatch

I have heard the Hebrew birthday song before and I believe the first lyric is:

Yom ha'leyach someh


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## Nunty

PocketWatch said:


> I have heard the Hebrew birthday song before and I believe the first lyric is:
> 
> Yom ha'leyach someh


There are a couple of birthday songs in Hebrew, but "Happy Birthday" is *yom huledet sameah.*


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## eli_k

Nun-Translator said:


> Maybe it will clarify a little if I say that "Happy Birthday" in Hebrew means "Happy having-being-born", more or less. In other words, it is much closer to the English expression than to the French one.


 
Not really.... It means exactly the same as "Happy Birthday". It doesn't mean "Happy having-being-born" at all. If it would, you'd say "Yom leida sameah" or יום לידה שמח but I've never heard anyone who said that, because It's wrong, because you say happy birthday. Like in English.


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## Nunty

eli_k said:


> not really.... it means exactly the same as "Happy Birthday". it doesn't mean "Happy having-being-born" at all. if it would, you'd say "Yom leida sameah" or יום לידה שמח but i've never heard anyone who said that, because it's totally wrong, because u say happy birthday. Like in English.


Yes, Eli. We say it to _mean_ "Happy Birthday". My point was that "huledet" doesn't mean birthday. I was trying (and not succeeding very well) to find an English expression that would express the grammatical sense of huledet, which is sort of the passive of "birth". Lida means birth in the active sense, but we don't say yom lidatka. 

I'm sure that one of the many people here who are better at grammar than I can explain this more clearly.

By the way, the forum rules require standard English forms, like capital letters at the beginning of sentences. You might want to change that yourself before the moderator does. A word to the wise...


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## eli_k

Nun-Translator said:


> Yes, Eli. We say it to _mean_ "Happy Birthday". My point was that "huledet" doesn't mean birthday. I was trying (and not succeeding very well) to find an English expression that would express the grammatical sense of huledet, which is sort of the passive of "birth". Lida means birth in the active sense, but we don't say yom lidatka.
> 
> I'm sure that one of the many people here who are better at grammar than I can explain this more clearly.
> 
> By the way, the forum rules require standard English forms, like capital letters at the beginning of sentences. You might want to change that yourself before the moderator does. A word to the wise...


 
O.k that's your opinion. 
Sorry if you got hurt...


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## Gadyc

Nun-Translator said:


> Yes, Eli. We say it to _mean_ "Happy Birthday". My point was that "huledet" doesn't mean birthday. I was trying (and not succeeding very well) to find an English expression that would express the grammatical sense of huledet, which is sort of the passive of "birth". Lida means birth in the active sense, but we don't say yom lidatka.


 
I agree with Nun. 
The source of the expression is in Genesis : יום הולדת את פרעה . Huledet is the act of giving birth in transitive form (do I use the right expression for פועל יוצא = acts on another object?) the word את proves that it is so in the verse.
According to context it can be also in passive voice - getting born.

Leida לידה - is giving bitrh to - is active voice. 

In right hebrew: The man מוליד , the woman יולדת and the baby נולד . To be clear: the father have causes, the mother does and the child recieves the action - he is passive.

Like I wrote in another thread, language is a big matter of culture and tradition.

Blessings,

Gadyc


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