Valentine's Day Feb 14, or July 6 or July 30th

Hand heart. Carmen Fiano - https://www.flickr.com/photos/53812099@N04/14763863277/

The hand heart was made popular by Korean pop groups, and was a sign of friendship made when the north and south Korean leaders met and were photographed together on a mountaintop. It costs nothing, creates no litter, and is a good international sign because it is universal so you don't need to speak another language.

Singapore Valentines - Be Prepared

SPRINGTIME

Februa is Latin for to cleanse, or to clean. Spring cleaning.

In the old calendar mid February was when some birds started courting matching, nesting and mating and work started in the vineyards.

In ancient times in Israel girls would wear white dresses and dance in the vineyard where boys would be waiting to propose marriage.

But marketing has amazing success. If you can create greetings cards, fill restaurants, sell jewellery and gifts and cookie cutters and cups with messages about Valentine's Day or hearts, you will sell them to children and adults, the young and the old, the single and married, anybody who wants to part with money for a message or a product with red and hearts.

ITALY, ROME & VALENTINE - La Festa di San Valentino

In Italy you wish Somebody Buon San Valentino.

More than one Christian called Valentine, a popular name was martyred, and various churches claim to have bits of the saints bodies. 

February14 is the day associated with Valentine's Day by Roman Catholics. the Eastern Orthodox celebrate In July 6th or 30th.

At the Central London Wine Society on Feb 11th Three Valentine's Day wines come to the UK from Europe, notably from France, Italy and Spain. Let's start with Italy.

ITALY

In Italy keys are given, representing the key to my heart, unlocking.

February is is named after the Roman God Februas and was the spring cleaning month.

ITALIAN FOOD

The Italian for biscuit is biscotti.

FRANCE

In France you might celebrate Valentine's Day with dinner, or a dinner on a boat on the Seine in Paris, or a helicopter ride. Your celebratory wine would be Champagne, from the Champagne region.  

Macaroons.

SPAIN, Tapas and Turron

Feliz San Valentín - Happy Valentine's Day. Feliz dia de San Valentin.

In Mexico they say, Happy Valentine's and friendship day.

Delicious Drink

The Spanish white wine equivalent of sparkling Champagne but cheaper is Cava, originally from cellars or stores in caves.

Favourite Food

Turron - Sweet

A Spanish gift might be turron, which is nougat, made from almonds, honey and egg white. A modern version is chocolate covered.

Tapas - Savoury

The Spanish food served in bars with wine is tapas. Originally supposedly tiny pieces of bread or sliced meat put on the top of glasses to keep off the flies. Or to keep off sand blown from the beach, says another story. The translation offered is lid or cover. To make an alliterative reminder, I think of the word top.

We ordered tapas in a bar in summer 2025 in Bilbao, the ferry port on the northern coast on the east (Santander is on the west). We thought it was expensive and would be the bite or two size of cocktail party canapes, but it was a large portion, as filling as a hamburger. Maybe pintchos (pintxos, which is plural, from pinchar to stab) not a pinch but sometimes skewered horizontally or toothpicked vertically to hold it all together.

You can also get dessert tapas.

UK

Chaucer, an early influencer, wrote a poem about Valentine's Day to celebrate the anniversary of the engagement of the 15 year old King of England.

In the UK Cadbury's introduced heart shapes boxes of chocolates. 

Nowadays the innovation is that the chocolates themselves are heart shaped.

|Valentine's Day is big business in the UK, the USA and Singapore which has four languages mainly English, also Chinese, meaning Mandarin. 

IRELAND

|Dublin in Ireland has a church with a relic and those without any love can pray to find love.

WALES

The Welsh celebrate on January 25th, recalling the tragic story of Welsh princess

You can make a heart sign with your thumbs and first fingers.

Happy VALENTINES DAY

Italy

Shakespeare's Ophelia mentions St Valentine's day in the play Hamlet.

AMERICA

American Valentines In Schools For Schoolchildren
When I went to live in America our son came home from school with a birthday card for Mummy, and he wanted to make a card for his teacher, which he said all the schoolchildren were doing. I was surprised, because in those days in the UK Valentine's Day cards were only for the unmarried and courting. 

Search online and you can find recordings of Valentine's day songs for the age of toddlers upwards. In America children give friendship cards to teachers. Finland also has friendship days.

ASIA

Valentine's Day month. I recall being in Singapore for the month of February and visiting several Toastmasters International Speakers' clubs. At the first Valentines theme club meeting I attended,  the table topics master asked, What would you do on Valentine's Day? What is the best restaurant for Valentine's Day? Where would you go, what was the best gift, and so on. She/he - I forget which - was looking for ideas.

In Malaysia Nowadays The Muslim movement has opposed valentines day, because it is western and encourages sex outside marriage, fornication, adultery and immorality. To counter this view, Valentines Day is  being promoted as a time for married couples to celebrate with date nights, buying expensive champagne, boxes of chocolates, and flowers. Plus of course clothes with hearts, and large cards.

In Japan women workers give chocolates to their co- workers, and a month later the men reciprocate by giving chocolates to women.

INDIA

The Hindus are against pubic displays of human affection. Instead, they tried to introduce hug a cow day. This strikes me and struck many others as an against the animal rights of the cow to refuse, besides being impractical and sometimes downright dangerous activity. Cows are too large to hug and do not necessarily reciprocate nor cooperate.

Useful Websites

February 

https://www.almanac.com/how-did-months-get-their-names

Valentine's Day

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valentine%27s_Day

A neat summary about Valentine's Day

https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/articles/z6wjrmn#z6jqcxs

ITALY

https://mominitaly.com/happy-valentines-day-in-italian/

To make your own heart shaped biscuits, heart shaped cookie cutters (biscuit cutters we would say in the UK

https://www.etsy.com/uk/listing/4433235888/heart-set-cookie-cutters?

SPAIN

https://www.tasteatlas.com/tapas-vs-pintxos-vs-cicchetti#modal

Spanish turron

https://www.bascofinefoods.com/1880-chocolate-and-dulce-leche-turron/

How To Remember The Masculine and Feminine in French and Italian

 

French

The French tend to add the letter e to make names and nouns feminine.  Think of the name Marie. Personal names often have the endings e or ette. Think of Marie Antoinette.  

The masculine for he is il. The feminine, she, is elle. 

Having learned the French, you are half way to remembering the Italian.

Italian

Italian also uses e for the feminine. She is lei.

In Duolingo I learned that the English word television has two forms in Italian. A television programme or programme service, is televisione, feminine. But a television set is televisore, masculine. 

I could learn to recognize that there were two different words. But how do you remember which is which?

I did it by creating a sentence, and a visual picture. I don't have or need a physical visual aid, a picture or a flashcard. I create my own vision in my mind.

A small woman is sitting, knitting, watching a small TV, changing channels. Her husband, a well-built man, is out delivering huge, heavy television sets. It might not be politically correct to stereotype, but I have to learn to speak and understand Italian they way it is currently spoken if I want to communicate with people living in Italy today.

Coffee At Paul's - Small tables, large portions

Paul

Photos by Angela Lansbury.

 We stopped for a quick coffee and a bit, a bite, to eat, a snack lunch, at Paul's near Farringdon station in London.

Nostalgic and Ethnic Decor

Paul's was established way back in 1889. Depuis 1889, the paper napkin told me. Wow, that's a long time ago. The decor is reminiscent of old France, a bit like the old historic Cafe Rouge decor.

The floor tiles are black and white. The wall tiles are white.

Prices and Portions

The prices are slightly larger than at the other big chains of coffee shops in the UK (we often go to US style Starbucks and Italian style Cafe Nero). However, here the portions are large. Also healthy looking options were available, not just biscuits, cakes, and sandwiches with meat or cheese and no vegetables. Here, we had a baguette which contained lots of healthy greenery. The size was big enough for two dieters to have one portion each for lunch and two portions, one for each of us, to take away.

French

I looked at the word depuis. Since. The language also told me it was a French chain. It was and still is. My husband ate in Paul's in France at a station in Paris. Gare du Nord. The Northern station.

Useful Website

https://www.paul-uk.com/patisseries

Please share links to your favourite posts. Also bookmark and follow me. I have other busy blogs here on blogspot.com on dressoftheday and comic poetry, and wineanddine. You will also find me on Facebook and linkedIn and can see and buy my books on Lulu.com and Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk

Flashcards and trilingual books for learning languages

I bought a set of 11 language cards from OOOZU. 

this weekend I was looking for a background for a zoom meeting with Hapy Birthday in multiple languages. 

Useful Websites

https://chrikarublog.wordpress.com/multilingual-flashcards/

Chineasy

ooozu.com

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Language-Cards-OOOZU-Lightweight-

trilingual Books

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Trilingual-English-Arabic-Illustrated-Vocabulary/

French Menu words translated A to Z from anglaise to zeste

A anglaise English, au gratin with cheese
B baguette, 

blanc white, bleu blue as in blue cheese, brut dry wine, brie soft white chees

C canard duck, casserole type of large saucepan, mixed meat and vegetables cooked for a long time in a large pot on the stove top, champignon mushroom, Champagne sparkling wine from the Champagne region, coq cock (male chicken), coq au vin chicken in wine, croissant crescent shaped puff pastry, creme brulee burned cream, a thick cream usually yellow with a brown sold sugar top like a toffee apple coating, cru raw, uncooked, Bûche de Noël (yule log
D doux soft
E escargots snails, estaminet small cafe selling glasses of wine
F fruit fruit, fruits de mer seafood
G grappe grape, gratin cheese, 

H haricots long green beans, herbes herbs
I Ile flottante floating islands of meringue in sauce
J jus sauce
K kaki persimmon
L lait milk
M Maroc Morocco, mille feuille literally a thousand leaves, flaky pastry with cream layers and iced top, moutarde mustard
N noir black nouvelle cuisine literally new cuisine, small and sometimes healthy portions, pretty presented, noix nut/walnut
O origine origin ie country of origin
P pain bread, pain perdu bread lost, egg lost by being poured on top of bread before or during cooking or hidden in a hollow, poulet chicken, puree liquidized, piment pimento, poulet chicken

Q quiche savoury tart with egg and milk/cream filling, sometimes with bacon or meats or vegetables as in 

Quiche Lorraine from that region
R rouge red
S salade salad, sec sweet, sel salt, sorbet water ice, souffle whipped up mousse, usually cooked
T tablier apron
U ugni blanc white grape used in Cognac which is a brandy from the region of Cognac
V vanille vanille, veau veal, vin wine, vin de table table wine not an exceptional vintage, vert green plural verts as in haricots verts, vol au vent, pasty case, large or small, with filling
W Waterzooi casserole in Belgium and N France, casserole with chicken or fish and vegetables in an egg yolk and cream sauce
X (none)
Y yaourt yogurt
Z zeste de citron lemon zest

Useful Websites

https://travelwithangelalansbury.blogspot.com/2017/07/a-french-menu-translated-from-don.html

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_cuisine

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_French_dishes

https://www.cellartours.com/blog/france/french-z-food-dictionary

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Cold and hot in European languages; Freddo Delicato Nespresso coffee

 Freddo Delicato coffee capsules from Nespresso. Photo by Angela Lansbury. Copyright.

We received Italian coffee capsules from Nespresso labelled freddo delicato and wondered if they were for cold or hot coffee. 

I used google translate to confirm. From my days as a sub-editor with IPC women's magazines, I know that you should always check, even if you are 99.9 per cent sure. 

UK - cold (adjective and noun, eg cold tap, the cold (noun), the cold weather (adjective)  . Similar word Freezing.

Italian - freddo

French - froid

Portuguese - frio

Spanish - frio

UK - hot - (memory aids: similar words  using b and c - close, calescent, baking hot, balmy; c pronounced like s - sultry, sweating)

Italian - caldo

French - chaux

Spanish - calor (heat,noun)

Spanish - caliente (hot, adjective)

Portuguese - calor

We tried the new flavour of coffee. It was mild, not bitter, pleasant. Not the wake you up strong coffee some would prefer for first thing in the morning, but good for day, or mid-day. I must admit we shared one capsule between two. But we often do that, and the stronger coffees still taste stronger.

Useful Websites

translate Google 

Nespresso

Reverso

https://context.reverso.net/translation/

https://context.reverso.net/translation/english-portuguese/

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Pronunciation of foreign languages, accents and diacritics

French pupils are élèves

To remember the up and down accents on French words I look at the French word for pupil, secondary school pupil eleve.

Look at the up and down accents.

élève

The first upward accent makes the sound ay as in hay. The second downward accent makes the sound ev as in every. You automatically raise your voice slightly when saying ay. You automatically make a lower sound on the ev sound.

The cedilla or tail under the c turns the c into an s sound. Think of the words palace, pencil, police in English.

English and the Magic E - for kings George V and George VI

People learning English complain that they don't know when a c has a hard sound like K. The secret is that in English an e after g makes the g soft. Age. Page. Rage. Sage. Percentage.

In the name George, the g is twice followed by an e which changed the hard g into a soft J sound.

Garage

The first g is hard. The second g is oft because the e is added to tell you so. GE=J

 Useful Websites

To find a foreign place name or any word, pronounced by male and female speakers with different accents from each country and region (you get several options) try forvo.

I used it for Italian and Albanian.

Useful Websites 

forvo

Also if you are teaching English and want people to pronounce words the English way

https://es.forvo.com/languages/es/

Do you know Europe's small countries, Andorra, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Monarco, San Marino and the Vatican?

 Which is which and which is where? Even though I have been to five out of six, I recently got in a muddle. I was happily telling a man selling wines on the Liechtenstein stand about driving for a day tip to Liechtenstein when I was a child and  my father who was driving saw somebody talking to a policeman and identified the tourist as an Italian. 

The man representing Liechtenstein wines nodded, agreed that you can identify Italian by the way they talk with the hands, and politely pointed out that in Lieichtenstein they border German and Switzerland and speak German. We had a very jolly, amicable and educational conversation. 

When I got home, I looked up Liechtenstein and realized, to my invisible embarrassment, that I had been recalling a trip to San Marino. When I checked the locations I could see why. San Marino is only a few miles from Rimini in Italy, which I had visited many times as a child with my parents and later as an adult. Rimini with its long sandy beach is a destination which has for years been promoted in package tours to the British traveller. Let's come back to Liechtenstein in a moment and sort out the facts and look at the little countries in Euorpe in alphabetical order.

Andorra - see the skiing and speak Spanish, or maybe French.

Andorra in winter is a ski destination and my son  went there specially to ski last Christmas time as a side trip from northern Spain and sent me pictures of streets and restaurants, landmarks and attractions. Andorra has mountains with skiing in winter and water providing seafood. Sandwiched between Spain and France, depending on the area you visit, you can get by with speaking and reading menus in French or Spanish. You are in the north of Spain, near the border with France, and if the Spanish sounds strange, or the spelling is slightly unusual and unexpected, that's because they are speaking the related language Catalan. The Catalan language is found both sides of the country, in place names, family names and everyday language in Andorra as well as adjacent Spain and France. 

Liechtenstein wine

Leichtenstein is a German speaking principality. I immediately recognized the word stein as German for stone, as in Einstein, a surname meaning one stone. The Leich part means light, like modern German as well as the Scottish. (I recall the Scottish poem from Burns, 'a broad licht moonlicht nicht, a broad, light, moonlit night). The spelling is i before e at the start.

In Liechtenstein, a big attraction is the wine cellars of the prince. The country produces ice wine, which means it has some cold moments.

Eiswein, which is German language for Ice Wine. They speak German.

Luxemburg

Luxembourg has more than one place to visit. Again in mountains. Multi-lingual opportunity and challenge.

Small but affluent. They speak French and German and the local language. As for food,  Luxembourgish cuisines like Bouneschlupp (green bean soup), Ierzebulli (pea soup), and Glühwäin (mulled wine).

Monarch of Monarco - and its Casino

The casino.

The port.

Driving east along the southern coast of Spain you reach opulent Monarco. When I went there from Nice I could not get into the country. You needed a visa. I can't remember whether we lacked the money or time to get one, but either we or the border control thought that the opulent country, its luxury fancy hotels and restaurants,  was beyond our budget at that time. 

San Marino

A side trip from Rimini in Italy. A road uphill to the top with the view. Buy postcards and postage stamps and drive down again. Speak Italian.

The Vatican

The Vatican has assorted treasures, the physical ones, the architecture, history, paintings, treasures, documents, as well as the living  treasures to see, the pope, the priests, the nuns, the devotees. The blessings and the balcony. The outdoors and the shady indoors. 

It also has the world's shortest railway.

Railway station platform.

Pope Francis.

St Peter's Square.

Musei Vaticani.

A top attraction for Roman Catholics, especially at certain times of year. If you are not religious and want to avoid crowds, time your trip off-season or at a suitable time of day, according to advice from the Vatican and your local travel agent or online. 

Expect to speak Italian. They used to speak Latin in services.

Useful Websites

  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vatican_City

THE ALPHABET EXPLAINED: The origin of every letter, and which countries will help you to be bilingual

I knew some of this about the origin of language. Very effectively presented. The presenter has a lovely, attractive English accent with perfect pronunciation. A pleasure to listen to him.

I have been studying Chinese (Mandarin). Chinese combines the earliest form of writing, pictograms. diagrams of natural objects, with signs representing sounds.

He shows how the modern Roman alphabet was derived over time. 

What he does not explain is how the Cyrillic alphabet was constructed at one point in time by Cyril and his borther. Just like Korean was invented by one person.

He has another video exaplining how German is easy to read if you can see how some letters in German are equivalent to others in English. 

Useing the existing Roman alphabet, the language Esperanto was devised to help Europeans who spoke several langagues, to speak to each other in a commong language which combines parts of each of the main languages, but kept to a regular structure with only 14 rules, quick to learn. 

If you are interested in languages you might be interested in these places:

SINGAPORE

In Singapore the four major official langauges and English Chinese (Mandarin), Malay (which is mostly the same as Indonesian) and Tamil.

Go on the MRT (underground railway) and you will hear announcements in four languages and see signs in four languages.

CANADA

You will hear English in Toronto and French in Montreal but in the capital all government empolyees are required to speak both languages. Most hotel and restaurant staff are also bilingual.

BELGIUM

You will see signs in two languages, French and Flemish (Dutch).

SWITZERLAND

A chance to practice three languages, French, German and Italian.

Happy birthday in multiple languages, English, American, French, Spanish, German, Hebrew

Angela Lansbury and birthday cake. 

My Starting Point

It's my birthday in the month of March. I already had a share of photos of a birthday cake bought for two other March babes (babies - adults, once newborn babies)  at Emmaus Catholic Toastmasters International club in Singapore.  I have a birthday dinner later this month so I am practising saying or recognizing the words Happy Birthday in various languages. 

Why Learn Or Teach Happy Birthday?

Happy Birthday to you is one of the world's most widely known songs, along with Auld Lang Syne. Since the four words of Happy Birthday to You are modern English they are easier to use and recognize.

What\s more, the same song is used in several countries.

England and the UK. The USA. Hong Kong.

Now let's move onto France which is across the sea from the UK and Canada which is over the border from the USA.

French For Happy Birthday

The French is Joyeux anniversaire. It sounds like the English words joyful anniversary, easy to learn, at least recognize, and teach. When saying it, note that the eux sounds more like a Z, jew - eye-(h)ers

Spanish

The Spanish is cumpleaños with a NY diacritic over the n .

It is my birthday - es mi cumpleaños

Happy Birthday - feliz cumpleaños 

 Congratulations - Felicidades

That does for Spain and much of South American. It sounds like compliments.

German

Google translate gave me

Alles Gute zum Geburtstag

A useful reminder to capitalise all the nouns. Alles is like all. Gute is like good. Ge is the past. burt is like birth. Tag is day.

Hebrew

The Hebrew includes the word for day which is Yom. You might know the important Jewish holiday, Yom Kippur. Or the Yiddish yom tov which is literally day good, or have a good day or rather holiday. In English on any festival you say in London, England, good yom tov, which is repeating the word day in two languages.

You might like to run these phrases through in your desired language.

 It's my birthday 

Happy birthday

Congratulations -

Useful web sites

Lovely Spanish version of Happy birthday and another song with subtitles.

https://www.berlitz.com/blog/happy-birthday-spanish-song

Translate google

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b6/Most_common_birthdays.svg

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_birthday_songs

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

"Birthday song" redirects here. For the song by 2 Chainz, see Birthday Song.

This list of birthday songs contains songs which are the equivalent of Happy Birthday To You, sung around the globe on birthday occasions.

Based on the tune: Good Morning To All

These are translations or variations sung to the tune that is commonly associated with the English language lyrics "Happy Birthday To You".

•  Albania: "Shumë urime për ty"
• 
  
•  Arabic countries: "سنة حلوة يا جميل" (Sana helwa ya gameel)^[1]
• 
  
•  Argentina and  Uruguay: "Que los cumplas feliz"^[2]
  • "El payaso Plin-Plin" (children song with the same melody)
• 
  
•  Armenia: "Tsnundd shnorhavor" "Ծնունդդ շնորհավոր"^[3]
• 
  
•  Brazil: "Parabéns pra Você"
• 
  
•  Bulgaria: "Честит рожден ден" (Chestit rozhden den)
• 
  
•  Canada:
  • 
    
  • "Happy Birthday" (English-speaking Canada)
  • 
    
  • "Bonne fête à toi" (French-speaking Canada)
• 
  
•  Chile: "Cumpleaños feliz"^[4]
• 
  
•  People's Republic of China: "Zhu ni shengri kuaile"^[5] (祝 你 生日 快乐)
• 
  
•  Colombia: "Cumpleaños feliz"
• 
  
•  Croatia: "Sretan rođendan ti"
• 
  
•  Ecuador:^[6] (Unable to find name of real name of song, but here are the lyrics) "Cumpleaños feliz, Deseamos a tí, Cumpleños (nombre 
• de la persona + tito/tita), cumpleaños feliz"!
• 
  
•  Estonia: "Palju õnne sulle!" or "Õnne soovime sul!"
• 
  
•  Finland: "Paljon onnea vaan"^[7]
• 
  
•  France: "Joyeux anniversaire"
• 
  
•  Georgia: "გილოცავ დაბადების დღეს" (gilotsav dabadebis dges)
• 
  
•  Germany: "Zum Geburtstag viel Glück" and even the English original
• 
  
•  Hong Kong:
  • Happy Birthday To You commonly sung in English
  • "Sang Yat Go" (生日歌): Happy Birthday To You in Cantonese lyrics
• 
  
•  Hungary: "Boldog szülinapot"
• 
  
•  Iceland: "Hann(m)/Hún(f) á afmæli í dag"^[7]
• 
  
•  Ireland: "Lá breithe sona duit"
• 
  
•  India: Happy Birthday to You often sung in English. वाढदिवसाच्या हार्दिक शुभेच्छा (Vad Divasachya Hardik Shubhchchya) in Marathi or जन्मदिन की शुभकामनाये (Janmdin Ki Shubh Kamanayen) in Hindi or ജന്മദിനാശംസകള്‍ നേരുന്നു (Janma dinasamsakal Nerunnu) in Malayalam and in Tamil (பிறந்தநாள் நல்வாழ்த்துக்கள்) and in Telugu జన్మదిన శుభాకాంక్షలు / పుట్టినరోజు శుభాకాంక్షలు (Janma Dina Shubhakankshalu / Puttina Roju Shubakankshalu) and in Kannada (Huttu Habbada Shubhashayagalu) and in Konkani (Vad Divasache Mast Mast Shubhashayu)
• 
  
•  Indonesia : "Selamat Ulang Tahun" often sung in English tune. Or
  • "Selamat Ulang Tahun, kami ucapkan. Selamat panjang umur, kita 'kan doakan. Selamat sejahtera, sehat sentosa. Selamat panjang umur, dan bahagia" Sung in Dutch/Belgium/Malay/Others tune.
• 
  
•  Israel:
  • Happy Birthday (Hebrew: יום הולדת שמח Yom Huledet Same'ach)
• 
  
•  Italy: "Tanti auguri a te"^[7]
• 
  
•  Japan:
  • Happy Birthday to You often sung in English, especially Elmo's version on Sesame Street.
  • '(O)tanjobi Omedeto' (お誕生日おめでとう) is sung in the same tune.
• 
  
• 
  
•  South Korea: 생일 축하 합니다 (saeng-il chukha hamnida)
• 
  
•  Lithuania: "Su gimimo diena"
• 
  
•  Malaysia:
  • "Selamat Hari Jadi" - also commonly sung in English
• 
  
• 
  
•  Netherlands: "Een fijne verjaardag voor jou". Dutch Children often sing the song in different languages (like English German, French parody Russian and parody Chinese)
  • "Welgefeliciteerd" (most often used)
  • "Happy Birthday to you" often sung in English
  • "Happy birthday to you, I went to the zoo, I saw a fat monkey and I knew/thought it was you" (parody)
  • "Happy Birthday to you, in de wei staat een koe en die koe zei: 'I love you' Happy birthday to you" (sweet parody)
  • "Hankie pankie Shanghai" (parody on Chinese sung by children)
  • "wushni wushni wush wush" (parody on Russian sung by children)
  • "Happy birthday to you, Squished bananas in stew, And bananas in pyjamas, Happy birthday to you" (banana parody)
• 
  
•  New Zealand: "Hari huritau ki a koe" (Māori)
• 
  
•  Nigeria: It Is Your Birthday by LekanA ^[8]
• 
  
•  Peru : "Cumpleaños Feliz"
  • 'Happy Birthday to You' sung right before it (in English)
• 
  
•  Philippines: "Maligáyang Bátì"^[7]
  • Happy Birthday to You also sung in English
• 
  
•  Portugal: Parabéns A Você
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•  Russia: С днём рожденья тебя (S dn'om rozhden'ya teb'a) (sometimes sung in English)
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•  Serbia: "Srećan ti rođendan!" (Cyrillic: "Срећан ти рођендан!")

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•  Slovakia: "Veľa šťastia, zdravia"
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•  Slovenia: "Vse najboljše za te"
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•  Spain: "Cumpleaños Feliz" (also see below)
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  • Catalonia and Valencian Community: "Moltes felicitats"
  • Basque: "Zorionak zuri"
  • Galicia: "Felíz Aniversario"
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•  Sri Lanka:
  • Sinhala"සුභ උපන්දිනයක් වේවා"(Suba Upan Dinayak Wewa)
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•  Somalia: Hip Hooray Hip Hooray Dhalasho Wacan and Tanti auguri a te
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•  Switzerland:
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  • Swiss German: "Zom Geburtstag vell Glück"
    • Happy Birthday to You often sung in English, French, and Italian
  • Swiss French: "Joyeux anniversaire" like in France
  • Swiss Italian: "Tanti auguri a te" like in Italy
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•  Taiwan - "ㄓㄨˋ ㄋㄧˇ ㄕㄥ ㄖˋ ㄎㄨㄞˋ ㄌㄜˋ" (祝 你 生日 快樂)
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•  Thailand:สุขสันต์วันเกิด
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•  Turkey: "İyi ki doğdun (isim)"
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•  United Kingdom: Happy birthday to you
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•  United States: Happy birthday to you
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•  Wales: "Penblwydd hapus i chi"
  • many local parody versions substituting a few words that fit the tune for comic effect,

    e.g. "Happy birthday to you, I went out to the zoo, I saw a great monkey, And he looked just like you,"

    "Happy birthday to you, Squashed tomatoes in stew, And bananas in pajamas, Happy birthday to you," and

    "Happy birthday to you, You live in a zoo, You look like a monkey, And you smell like one too."

  Some of these parody versions are sung by those wishing to make a point about the copyright status of the proper lyrics.

Other traditional songs

•  Belgium:
  • Lang zal hij/zij leven
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•  Brazil:
  • Parabéns da Xuxa
  • Parabéns do Carequinha
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•  Bulgaria: Много Лета (mnogo leta) : Many Years
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•  Canada (French Canada): Gens du pays (Mon/Ma cher/chère [name], c'est à ton tour, de te laisser parler d'amour [bis])
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•  Czech Republic: "Štěstí, zdraví"
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•  Cuba: Felicidades
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•  Denmark:
  • I dag er det Oles fødselsdag [da] ("Today is Ole's Birthday") (written and composed by Otto Mikkelsen [da] in 1913)
  • [Navn] har fødselsdag ("[Name] has a birthday")
  • In Greenland: Inuuissiortoq pilluarit ("Congratulations, Birthday Child")^[9]
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•  Dominican Republic: El Regalo Mejor (Celebro tu cumpleaños)
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•  France : Bon Anniversaire [fr] ("Happy Birthday, sincerest wishes to you")
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•  Georgia: მრავალჟამიერ (Mravalzhamier) : Many Years
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•  Germany:
  • Viel Glück und viel Segen
  • Hoch soll er/sie leben
  • Wie schön, dass du geboren bist (song by Rolf Zuckowski)
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•  Greece: "Να ζήσεις και χρόνια πολλά" (Na zisis ke hronia polla)
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•  Hong Kong:
  • "Zuk Sau Go" (祝壽歌): 恭祝你　福壽與天齊　慶賀你生辰快樂　年年都有今日 歲歲都有今朝 恭喜你 恭喜你
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•  India (Hindi): Janam Din ki hardik shubhkamana/badhai
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•  Indonesia:
  • Selamat Ulang Tahun
  • Panjang Umurnya (based from the Dutch Lang zal hij/zij leven)
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•  Iran: "Tavalodet Mobarak" تولدت مبارک ("blessed be your birthday") by Anoushiravan Rohani
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•  Israel:
  • Today is a Birthday (Hebrew: היום יום הולדת HaYom Yom Huledet)
  • Birthday (Hebrew: יום הולדת Yom Huledet)
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•  Latvia: Daudz baltu dieniņu
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•  Lithuania: Ilgiausių metų
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•  Malaysia: Allah selamatkan kamu /الله سلامتکن کامو ("May Allah bless you"), popularized through movies of P. Ramlee such as Nasib Labu Labi and Tiga Abdul.
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•  Mexico: Las Mañanitas
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•    Nepal: "Janma din ko Subhakamana"
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•  Netherlands:
  • Er is er een jarig
  • Lang zal hij/zij leven
  • Twee violen en een trommel en een fluit
  • Oh wat zijn wij heden blij (A more informal children's song, sung in school before treats are distributed)
  • Hij/zij leve hoog
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•  Norway
  • Gratulerer med dagen
  • Hurra for deg^[7]
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•  Pakistan
  • Salgirah Mubarak Ho (Urdu)
  • Kaliza Umbarak Sha (Pashto)
• \
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•  Poland: Sto lat ("[We wish you to live] A hundred years")

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•  Romania: Mulţi ani trăiască
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•  Russia: Песенка Крокодила Гены (Song of Crocodile Gena)
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•  Serbia: Danas nam je divan dan
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•  South Africa: Veels geluk liewe maatjie (Afrikaans language: Much happiness dear friend - also slightly religious - Christian)
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•  Spain: Feliz, feliz en tu día, originally from a TV show but now quite extended as a traditional birthday song.
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•  Suriname: A di mi yere yu friyari (Sranan Tongo)

•  Sweden: Ja, må han (hon) leva
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•  Ukraine: Хари Бирдеи то иу (Happy birthday to you)
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•  Vietnam: Happy birthday
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•  Venezuela: Ay, que noche tan preciosa

• Yiddish: "צו דײַן געבורטסטאָג Tsu Dayn Geburtstog (Written by Avrom Goldfaden around 1877-1878 for his operetta di kishufmakherin