Learn Hardcore Chinese: wǒmen zài jiā guò shēngrì.

我们在家过生日
Literally: “We at home celebrate birthday.”
Structure: Subject + 在 + place + Verb + Object
→ “We celebrate (a) birthday at home.”
我们家过生日
Literally: “Our family celebrates (a) birthday.”
Here 我们家 means “our family / our household”, and it is the subject, not a place phrase.

So:

To say where you celebrate: use 在 + place → 我们在家过生日.
To emphasize who (the family) is celebrating: 我们家过生日 (“our family is celebrating a birthday”).

You can also say:

在我们家过生日 – “celebrate (a) birthday at our home / at our place.”
Here 在我们家 is clearly a place phrase (“at our home”).

What exactly does 过 (guò) mean here? Is it past tense?

In 我们在家过生日, 过 is a main verb meaning:

to spend (time)
to celebrate (a festival or birthday)

So 过生日 is basically “to celebrate (someone’s) birthday”.

This is not the same as the aspect particle 过 that marks past experience, as in:

我去过中国。 – “I have been to China (before).”

Compare:

Verb 过 (celebrate/spend):
- 我们在家过生日。 – We celebrate the birthday at home.
- 我们在家过年。 – We spend/celebrate the New Year at home.
Aspect 过 (have done before):
- 我过过生日。 – I have celebrated birthday before (in my life).
- 你在家过过生日吗？ – Have you ever celebrated a birthday at home?

So in your sentence, 过 is not marking past tense; it’s just the verb “celebrate / spend”.

If 过 isn’t past tense, how do we know whether this sentence is past, present, or future?

Mandarin generally doesn’t mark tense on the verb. Time is understood from:

Time words (昨天, 今天, 明天…)
Context
Aspect particles like 了, 过, 着

我们在家过生日。 by itself can mean:

“We celebrate birthdays at home.” (habitual)
“We are celebrating the birthday at home.” (present, from context)
“We will celebrate the birthday at home.” (future, from a future context)

Examples with explicit time:

昨天我们在家过生日。
Yesterday we celebrated the birthday at home.
明天我们在家过生日。
Tomorrow we will celebrate the birthday at home.
我们昨天在家过了生日。
We celebrated the birthday at home yesterday. (aspect 了 shows the event is completed)

So tense is not in 过 here; it comes from time words and context.

Is 过生日 a fixed phrase? Could I say 庆祝生日 instead?

Yes, 过生日 (guò shēngrì) is a very common, almost set phrase meaning “to celebrate a birthday / to have a birthday”.

You can definitely use 庆祝 (qìngzhù) too:

庆祝生日 – “to celebrate a birthday”

Nuance:

过生日
- Very common, everyday, neutral.
- Implies “spend the day, mark the occasion.”
- Often used with festivals too: 过年 (celebrate New Year), 过中秋 (celebrate Mid-Autumn Festival).
庆祝生日
- Slightly more formal or emphasizes the act of celebration itself.
- Often used when you talk about “holding a celebration.”

Both are fine; in everyday speech 过生日 is more frequent.

Why isn’t there a word for “my” in “birthday”? Should it be 过我的生日?

Chinese often omits possessives when the owner is clear from context.

我们在家过生日。
Literally: “We at home celebrate birthday.”
Understood as: “We celebrate our (someone’s) birthday at home.”
Context usually makes it obvious whose birthday it is.

You can say 过我的生日 or 过他的生日, but:

过生日 – neutral, general: “celebrate (the) birthday”
过我的生日 – “celebrate my birthday” (possessor emphasized or needs to be clear)
给妈妈过生日 – “celebrate mom’s birthday” / “have a birthday celebration for mom”

So 过生日 is perfectly natural and does not need 的 or a pronoun unless you need to specify or emphasize whose birthday it is.

Why is the word order 我们在家过生日 and not 我们过生日在家?

The typical Mandarin word order is:

Subject + (Time) + Place + Verb + Object

So:

我们在家过生日。
Subject: 我们
Place: 在家
Verb: 过
Object: 生日

This is the normal and natural order.

Putting the place at the end:

我们过生日在家。

is unusual and sounds wrong in normal speech. You might only see something like this in special, emphatic structures, but as a plain sentence, it’s not natural.

For time words, you get:

我们明天在家过生日。
明天我们在家过生日。

Both orders (time before subject or after subject) are common, but place phrases almost always go before the verb.

Can I say 在家里 or 在家中 instead of 在家? Are they different?

Yes, all of these are grammatically fine:

在家 – “at home”
在家里 – “at home / inside home”
在家中 – “at home / in the home” (more formal/literary)

Nuance:

在家 is the most common in everyday spoken Chinese.
在家里 is also common; 里 adds a slight sense of “inside,” but often there’s no real difference.
在家中 sounds more formal or written, like in news articles, essays, or speeches.

So for standard conversation, 我们在家过生日 is the most natural.

Why don’t we say something like “one birthday”, e.g. 一个生日?

In the phrase 过生日, you don’t need a measure word:

过生日 – “celebrate a birthday / birthdays”

That’s the normal pattern. 生日 here is treated as an event noun that doesn’t require a classifier in this collocation.

You can say 一个生日, but usually only when you modify it or emphasize “one particular birthday”, for example:

过一个难忘的生日。
“Spend a memorable birthday.”

In your basic sentence, 我们在家过生日, adding 一个 would make it sound oddly heavy or unnatural.

What is the difference between 在家 (“at home”) and something like 在房子里 (“in the house”)?

家 (jiā) in this context means “home”, focusing on the idea of home / family life.
房子 (fángzi) means “house (building)”, focusing on the physical structure.

So:

在家过生日 – celebrating at home, with a warm, family feel.
在房子里过生日 – “celebrate (a) birthday inside the house”; grammatically OK, but it sounds unusually physical and is not how people normally say it.

If you just mean “at home”, you should say 在家.

Can we omit 我们 and just say 在家过生日?

Yes. Mandarin often drops the subject if it’s clear from context.

If someone asks: 你们去哪儿过生日？
“Where are you (plural) going to celebrate the birthday?”
You can answer:
- 在家过生日。
  “(We’ll) celebrate the birthday at home.”

In instructions or descriptions, you might also see it:

很多人喜欢在家过生日。
“Many people like to celebrate birthdays at home.”

So 在家过生日 is a perfectly good sentence fragment when the subject is understood.

How would I say “We are celebrating my mom’s birthday at home” using this pattern?

A very natural sentence is:

我们在家给妈妈过生日。
Literally: “We at home for mom celebrate birthday.”
Meaning: “We’re celebrating my mom’s birthday at home.”

Here:

给妈妈 – “for mom” / “for my mom”
过生日 – “celebrate (her) birthday”

If you want to make the possessor explicit:

我们在家给我妈妈过生日。
“We celebrate my mom’s birthday at home.”

What does 家 (jiā) itself mean here? I’ve seen it used as “home” and also as a measure word for people.

家 (jiā) has several common uses:

Noun: “home / family / household”
- In 我们在家过生日, it’s this meaning: “at home”.
Noun: “house”
- 我家在北京。 – “My home/house is in Beijing.”
Measure word for certain professions
- 一位画家 or 一位画家 (painter) – but 一位 is a person classifier, 家 is part of the noun here.
- 一个银行家 – “a banker”

In your sentence, it is simply “home” as a location, forming the phrase 在家 – at home.

Where would I put a time word like “tomorrow” in this sentence?

Time words in Mandarin usually go before the place phrase or right after the subject. Both are common.

Using 明天 (míngtiān, tomorrow):

明天我们在家过生日。
我们明天在家过生日。

Both mean: “We will celebrate (the) birthday at home tomorrow.”

Structure options:

Time + Subject + Place + Verb + Object
→ 明天 + 我们 + 在家 + 过 + 生日
Subject + Time + Place + Verb + Object
→ 我们 + 明天 + 在家 + 过 + 生日

Place phrase 在家 still comes before the verb in both.