Breakdown of Hast du heute Geburtstag?
du
you (informal singular)
haben
to have
heute
today
Geburtstag haben
to have a birthday (on a date)
Questions & Answers about Hast du heute Geburtstag?
Why does the German sentence use hast (have) instead of a word for 'is'?
In German, the standard way to talk about birthdays is with the phrase Geburtstag haben (literally: to have birthday). So instead of asking 'is it your birthday?', a German speaker asks 'have you birthday?'.
Would it be wrong to translate it literally and ask Ist heute dein Geburtstag?
It wouldn't be grammatically wrong, and people would definitely understand you! However, Hast du heute Geburtstag? is the much more natural and common way native speakers say it.
Why does heute (today) come before Geburtstag in the sentence?
In German, time words like heute (today) usually want to be as close to the beginning of the sentence as possible, right after the verb and the subject. Because of this rule, the time steps right in front of the object (Geburtstag).
Why is Geburtstag capitalized here?
Because it is a noun! In German, every single noun is always capitalized, no matter where it shows up in the sentence. Geburtstag is actually made of two nouns stuck together: die Geburt (the birth) and der Tag (the day).
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