Happy birthday in Danish: tillykke med fødselsdagen

Happy birthday in Danish is tillykke med fødselsdagen, word for word “congratulations with the birthday”. In speech most people just say tillykke! Tap the words to hear them. Below: how to say it, what to write in a card, the birthday song, and the flags, cake and cinnamon that come with a Danish birthday.

How do Danes say happy birthday?

• Tillykke med fødselsdagen!Happy birthday!
• Tillykke!Congratulations! (the short version, used all the time)
• Hjertelig tillykke med fødselsdagen!Warm congratulations on your birthday!
• Stort tillykke!Big congratulations!
• Tillykke med de fyrre år!Congratulations on turning 40!

The last one is very Danish. For a round birthday you congratulate someone on the years themselves: tillykke med de tredive, “congratulations with the thirty”. The guide to Danish numbers has all the ages, from tyve to halvfems.

What does tillykke med fødselsdagen mean?

Tillykke means “congratulations”, literally “to luck”, and you use it for anything good: a new job, a baby, a passed exam, a new flat. Med is “with”, and fødselsdagen is “the birthday”, from fødsel (birth) and dag (day). Danish puts the word “the” at the end of the noun, so en fødselsdag is “a birthday” and fødselsdagen is “the birthday”.

So there is no separate word for “happy” here. Danes do not wish you a happy birthday; they congratulate you on it.

How to pronounce it

• tillykke: “til-lyk-ke”, stress on the middle. The y is the Danish y: say “ee” and round your lips.
• fødselsdag: “fød-sels-da”. The g at the end is silent, and the d before it is soft.
• fødselsdagen: the same, with “-en” at the end.
• med: the d is the soft Danish d, close to the “th” in English “the”.

What to write in a Danish birthday card

Danish birthday cards are short. One line of congratulations, one line of wishes, and a greeting. Mix and match:

• Kære AnnaDear Anna
• Hjertelig tillykke med fødselsdagen.Warm congratulations on your birthday.
• Hav en dejlig dag!Have a lovely day!
• Jeg håber, du får en rigtig god dag.I hope you have a really good day.
• Mange hilsner fra PeterMany greetings from Peter
• Kærlig hilsenLove (to family and close friends)

For a colleague, mange hilsner is right. Keep kærlig hilsen for family, partners and good friends.

What do you answer?

• Tak!Thanks!
• Tusind tak!Thanks a lot! (literally “a thousand thanks”)
• Hvor er det sødt af dig.That is so sweet of you.

More ways to say thank you are in the thank you guide.

The Danish birthday song

There is no Danish party without the birthday song, fødselsdagssangen. The one everybody knows starts with the name of the birthday person: I dag er det Annas fødselsdag, “today is Anna’s birthday”, followed by three hurra. Everyone sings, and when the song is over somebody shouts the first line below, and the room answers with more hurrahs:

• Hun skal leve!Long may she live! (literally “she shall live”)
• Han skal leve!Long may he live!
• Hurra, hurra, hurra!Hurrah, hurrah, hurrah!

The song has many verses about the cake, the chocolate and the presents, and families add their own. You do not need the verses in your first year. Learn the first line with the right name, and the three hurra, and you can join in. Danes also sing the English “Happy birthday to you”, especially with children and at work.

Birthday words you will hear

• en fødselsdaga birthday
• Jeg har fødselsdag i dag.It is my birthday today.
• Hvornår har du fødselsdag?When is your birthday?
• en fødselsdagsgavea birthday present
• en børnefødselsdaga children’s birthday party
• en kagemanda “cake man”, a big pastry figure for children’s birthdays
• et flaga flag

Notice that Danes have birthday: jeg har fødselsdag, not “I am birthday”. To answer the question you need a date: Jeg har fødselsdag den femtende marts.

How Danes celebrate a birthday

• Flags. The Danish flag, Dannebrog, is the birthday decoration: small flags on the table, on the cake, and a big flag on the pole in the garden.
• Cake at work. In Denmark the birthday person brings the cake, not the colleagues. Expect to buy rolls or cake for your team on your birthday.
• Cake at school. Children bring something for the class, and a kagemand or kagekone (a cake man or cake woman) is the classic at the party at home.
• Singing at breakfast. In many families the birthday starts with the song, flags and presents at the breakfast table.

What happens in Denmark if someone turns 25 and is not married?

Their friends cover them in cinnamon. It is an old joke tradition: a single man was once called a pebersvend, and a single woman a pebermø, “pepper bachelor” and “pepper maid”. On the 25th birthday the friends tie the person to a lamppost or a chair and throw cinnamon at them, usually with water first so it sticks. If they are still single at 30, it is pepper. Nobody takes it seriously, and most of the people who get the cinnamon have a partner, they are just not married.

Questions people ask

How do you say happy birthday in Danish?

Tillykke med fødselsdagen. Or just tillykke!, which is what most people say face to face.

Is tillykke one word or two?

One word: tillykke. You will see til lykke in old texts, but today it is written together.

What is the correct way to say happy birthday in a text message?

Tillykke med dagen!, “congratulations on the day”, is the classic short message. Add a flag emoji and you are as Danish as it gets.

Do Danes say happy birthday in English?

Some do, in writing and among young people, and they sing the English song too. But tillykke is what you hear every day, and it is the one people will be happy to hear from you.