Learn Italian: Quando è il tuo compleanno?

Quando è il tuo compleanno?

When is your birthday?

Breakdown of Quando è il tuo compleanno?

Questions & Answers about Quando è il tuo compleanno?

Why does the sentence use il tuo compleanno instead of just tuo compleanno?

In Italian, possessive words like tuo (your) or mio (my) almost always need a definite article like il or la in front of them. Literally, the sentence is asking "When is the your birthday?"

I remember a rule about dropping the article with words like tuo or mio. Why doesn't that apply here?

You drop the article only when talking about singular family members, like mio padre (my father) or tua sorella (your sister). Since compleanno (birthday) isn't a family member, it follows the standard rule and keeps the article (il).

How would I answer this question using the "il + number" date format from this lesson?

To answer, you start with È il (It is the) followed by the number of the day and the month. For example, if your birthday is May 14th, you would say: È il quattordici maggio. Notice that you don't need a word for "of", and Italian months are not capitalized!

What happens if my birthday is on the 1st of the month? Do I still use a normal number?

That is the one exception! For the first day of the month, Italians use the ordinal number primo (first) instead of the normal counting number uno (one). So, you would answer È il primo maggio.