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How to Say Happy Birthday in Italian

How to Say Happy Birthday in Italian
Published: May 20, 2010
Updated: May 14, 2022
1 minute read

Italian is known as one of the most beautiful languages in the world. The Italian language shares some similarities with French, Spanish and Romanian, which are all romance languages derived from Latin. Italian is heard not only throughout Italy, but in other countries such as Switzerland and France. Phrases in Italian, for example, “Happy Birthday,” mean one thing when the words are said together but mean something different when the words are separated.

Buon

Say “Buon.” It’s pronounced Bwohn. This means “Good” by itself but is the “Happy” section in “Happy Birthday.”

Compleanno

Say “Compleanno.” It’s pronounced Com-play-ah-no. This means “Birthday” by itself as well as in the phrase “Happy Birthday.”

Buon Compleanno

Now say them together. Say “Bwohn Com-play-ah-no.”

Practice

Practice until you can say it without having to look at the pronunciation.

Say “Buon Compleanno.”

Say it again, this time without the looking at the pronunciation. Say “Buon Compleanno.”

Practice Without Translation

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Practice until you’re able to say it without looking at the translation.

Resources

Christina Martinez

Christina Martinez has been writing professionally since 2007. She's been published in the California State University at Fullerton newspaper, "The Daily Titan." Her writing has also appeared in "Orange County's Best" magazine. She holds a…

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