Skip to Content

Bon Anniversaire Meaning – Happy Birthday In French

Bon Anniversaire Meaning – Happy Birthday In French

In this lesson you’ll learn how to say happy birthday in French: Bon anniversaire. Actually, there are several other expressions which you can use, including bonne fête! Keep reading, listen to the audio and repeat!

bon anniversaire

happy birthday

Bon Anniversaire = Happy birthday in French

Bon Anniversaire – Happy birthday in French

1. Bon anniversaire (not bonne anniversaire)

Bon anniversaire is one of the most standard ways to say happy birthday in French. You’ll find this written on birthday cards, balloons, and French birthday cakes. 

Despite this, bon anniversaire is actually a very misspelled phrase. One French study found that 13% of birthday cards contain “bon anniversaire” spelled incorrectly. 

It is usually misspelled as bonne anniversaire. So make sure you keep “bon” in its masculine form and write bon anniversaire

Hoyeux anniversaire (happy birthday in French)

2. Joyeux anniversaire (en retard)

Similar to bon anniversaire, joyeux anniversaire is another common way French people say happy birthday. While bon anniversaire means “good birthday,” joyeux anniversaire means “joyful birthday” or “happy birthday.”

joyeux anniversaire

happy (joyous) birthday

But what’s the deal with the en retard at the end? Well, that’s what you would add if you’d like to wish someone a belated birthday. 

Joyeux anniversaire en retard and bon anniversaire en retard both mean happy belated birthday. En retard literally translates to “late.” 

This is another one of those French expressions that French learners and speakers alike will misspell. This is because of a French pronunciation rule called liaison.

Basically, liaison makes it so that if a word ends with a consonant and the next word starts with a vowel, you’ll connect the two sounds together. Because of this, joyeux anniversaire is pronounced more like joyeuz anniversaire. 

So if it sounds like a French speaker is saying “joyeuse anniversaire,” they’re just practicing liaison. 

3. Meilleurs vœux

Meilleurs vœux means best wishes and is a great French phrase to add to a birthday card. But, it’s definitely not the most common way to wish someone a happy birthday.

meilleurs vœux

best wishes

This phrase is usually reserved for the new year or around Christmas time

4. Passez une merveilleuse journée

While this phrase can be used in a few different ways, you can also use it on a birthday card. Passez une merveilleuse journée means “have a wonderful day.”

Passez une merveilleuse journée.

Have a wonderful day.

And since you’ll want to wish your new French friend a happy birthday and a wonderful day, this is a good phrase to have in your toolbelt. 

5. Pour ton anniversaire

Pour ton anniversaire means “for your birthday.” It’s a French expression that you will likely use to explain what birthday gift you got for someone’s birthday.

Pour ton anniversaire

for your birthday

For example, you might say, “Pour ton anniversaire, je t’achetais des fleurs.” This means “For your birthday, I bought you flowers.” 

6. Merveilleux anniversaire

If you’re searching for another birthday greeting, merveilleux anniversaire is a more unique way to say happy birthday. It means “wonderful birthday.”

merveilleux anniversaire

merveilleux anniversaire

7. Je vous souhaite plein de bonheur en cette journée spéciale. 

When writing a card for someone’s special day, this French phrase is a wonderful choice. Je vous souhaite plein de bonheur en cette journée spéciale means “I wish you lots of happiness on this special day.”

Je vous souhaite plein de bonheur en cette journée spéciale.

I wish you lots of happiness on this special day.

Bonne fête (another way of saying happy birthday)

French Canadian Happy Birthday Expressions

For the most part, French birthday expressions are pretty similar between France and Canada. But there is one pretty big difference between how they say happy birthday.

Happy Birthday in French Canadian

Instead of saying joyeux anniversaire, the French Canadians say bonne fête. In France, if you’re wishing someone bonne fête, you’re wishing them a happy name day. 

bonne fête

happy bithday

Language specialists aren’t totally sure why happy birthday is translated differently in the two countries.

But, it might be because of the influence of the Catholic religion on Canadian culture. Traditionally, Catholics would celebrate a person on their name day, or the day of the year dedicated to the saint or religious figure they are named after, rather than their birthday. 

But either way, it’s important not to mess up the two ways of saying happy birthday in French! 

Birthday vs. Anniversary

After reading through all of these ways to say happy birthday, you’ve probably seen that anniversaire translates to birthday in French. 

What is interesting about this is that anniversaire also translates to anniversary but only when paired with a prepositional phrase. 

In English, when we say “anniversary” with no context, it means the dating or marriage anniversary. But when you say anniversaire with no context in French it means birthday. 

If you wanted to talk about your marriage anniversary in French, you would have to say “anniversaire de mariage.” Here the prepositional phrase “de mariage” (of marriage) changes the sense from birthday to marriage anniversary.

If you wanted to talk about the anniversary of an important event, like the Normandy landings, you would say “anniversaire du Debarquement.” 

French Birthday Customs

It’s time to celebrate! Not only have you made it through some of the ways to say happy birthday in French, but we’ve made to the most fun part. 

It’s time to learn how to celebrate a birthday in the French culture. As someone who has been to a few French birthday parties, there were a few things that surprised me about French birthday customs.

Un gâteau d'anniversaire (bithday cake)

French Birthday Cake

Starting with the thing that surprised me most: the French birthday cake. Just like in the United States, the French celebrate their birthdays with a birthday cake. 

But, it looks a little different most of the time. Some people will just get a cake from the boulangerie or the grocery store. 

Common cakes you find here will look more like a versaillais, un fraisier, or boulangerie cakes like these

When people make them at home, they’ll usually make something simpler than the birthday cakes we make in the United States. When I imagine a homemade birthday cake, I imagine a two-layer cake with icing, sprinkles, and candles.

But in France, homemade cakes are usually just cake. Icing is not really as much of a thing in France. 

So for my birthday this year, my friends just made me a simple, one-sheet chocolate cake with candles. And this is very typical. 

Don’t Say Happy Birthday in French Early

Another thing to know about French birthday customs is that it is considered bad luck to wish someone happy birthday before their birthday.

I actually had a kind of awkward situation once where I wished a coworker a happy early birthday. And everyone told me how unlucky that was and I felt a little bad.

So definitely remember to only wish someone happy birthday on the day of their birthday or en retard

Writing a Birthday Card in French

Just like in the United States, writing a birthday card for someone’s birthday is an appreciated gesture. In a French birthday card, you can include a lot of the French phrases included above or write something like this:

  • Je te souhaite un joyeux anniversaire !
  • Un an de plus de sagesse, un an de plus d’amitié, un an de plus d’expériences, un an de plus d’amour, un an de plus de vie !
  • Quelle chance tu as !
  • J’espère que nous aurons l’occasion de fêter ton anniversaire prochainement.
  • A bientôt !

Meanings: 

  • I wish you a happy birthday!
  • One more year of wisdom, friendship, experiences, love, and life!
  • How lucky you are!
  • I hope we will have the chance to celebrate your birthday soon.
  • See you soon!

French birthday vocabulary and phrases

If you’re going to be attending a French birthday party (une fête d’anniversaire), it would be a great idea to learn some birthday vocabulary!

General birthday words

Birthday party vocabulary

  • un ballon balloon
  • une bougie candle
  • le papier cadeau gift wrapping paper
  • une fête d’anniversaire – birthday party
  • un(e) invité(e) guest
  • la surprise surprise

Useful birthday phrases

  • C’est quand ton/votre anniversaire? When is your birthday?
  • Mon anniversaire est le huit mai. My birthday is on May 8th.
  • Mon anniversaire est demain. My birthday is tomorrow.
  • Je te/vous souhaite un bon anniversaire! I wish you a happy birthday!
  • Célébrer une fête d’anniversaire to celebrate a birthday

Useful verbs

  • fêter un anniversaire – to celebrate a birthday
  • faire une fête to have a party
  • souffler les bougies to below out the candles
  • Inviter des amis to invite friends
  • faire un vœu to make a wish
  • offrir un cadeau to give a gift
  • envoyer une invitation to send an invitation
  • faire un gâteau to bake a cake

Talking about age

  • Quel âge as-tu? How old are you? (infomral)
  • Quel âge avez-vous? How old are you (formal)
  • J’ai _ ans. I am _ years-old.
  • Fêter ses vingt ans. To turn 20 years-old.

This page covers age in detail and this page covers the numbers you’ll need to talk about age.

French Happy Birthday song: French lyrics & English translation

Here are French lyrics and English translation to the French happy birthday song.

In the chorus of the song, two expressions for “Happy Birthday” are used: Joyeux anniversaire and Heureux anniversaire. The adjective joyeux translates to joyous and heureux translates to happy.

The meaning of voeux is wishes. The expression meilleurs vœux means “best wishes!”.

The line, “Se sont tous réunis” translates to “are all gathered together”. The verb se réunir means to get or gather together.

Joyeux anniversaire
Heureux anniversaire
Tous nos voeux sont sincères
Pour ton anniversaire

Joyous birthday
Happy birthday
All of our wishes are sincere
For your birthday

Tes amis aujourd’hui
Se sont tous réunis
Ton bonheur on l’espère
Pour ton anniversaire

Your friends today
Are all gathered together
Your happiness we hope
For your birthday

Joyeux anniversaire
Heureux anniversaire
Tous nos voeux sont sincères
Pour ton anniversaire

Joyous birthday
Happy birthday
All of our wishes are sincere
For your birthday

Anniversaire, anniversaire
Joyeux anniversaire

Birthday, birthday
Happy birthday

Listen to the French happy birthday song on YouTube with French lyrics and English translation.


Listen to the French happy birthday song on Spotify:

Related lessons:

More resources:

Sharing is caring!

Affiliate disclosure: Below you will find affiliate links. If you purchase something after clicking the link, we will receive a small commission. To learn more please visit our full disclosure page. Merci!

Sign up to download your free trial of À Moi Paris a French course which I recommend to my personal students to help with pronunciation, vocabulary and grammar. After that, upgrade for access to 77 hours of audio lessons.

Read our full review of À Moi Paris and find out why we love it so much!

Are you struggling with French verb conjugations? Then we highly recommend French Today's French Verb Drills course. Get over 28 hours of audio exercises to build reflexes and dramatically improve your French level and confidence.

Read our full review of French Verb Drills and find out why we recommend this course!

Calli Zarpas

Calli Zarpas, blogger, producer, and content creator, is a lover of all things travel, wellness, and French. Having begun traveling in her teens, Calli visited 30 countries before settling down in France post-college. When she's not writing French-language content for French Learner or traveling the world, you can find Calli creating content for herself and others on InstagramTiktok, and her blog, Wooish.

See all posts by