¡Feliz cumpleaños!

happy birthday

Questions & Answers about ¡Feliz cumpleaños!

How do you pronounce ¡Feliz cumpleaños! in Spain?

In standard Spain Spanish, it is approximately:

feh-LEETH koom-pleh-AHN-yos

A more precise pronunciation is:

/feˈliθ kumpleˈaɲos/

A few useful points:

• z in feliz sounds like the th in think in most of Spain.
• ñ in cumpleaños sounds like ny in canyon.
• The stress falls on:
  • -liz in feliz
  • -a- in cumpleaños

So the rhythm is:

fe-LIZ cum-ple-A-ños

Why is there an upside-down exclamation mark at the beginning?

Spanish uses two exclamation marks:

• ¡ at the beginning
• ! at the end

So exclamations are written like this:

¡Feliz cumpleaños!

This helps the reader know from the start that the sentence is exclamatory. In informal texting, some people may skip the opening mark, but the correct standard writing includes both.

Why is cumpleaños plural if it means one birthday?