How to say happy birthday in posh english

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Table of Contents

• Overview
• Introduction
• What does 'posh' really mean?
• Some common ways to wish someone a happy birthday
• A quick look at how we'd normally say it in English without being silly or over-the-top
• Some suggestions for how we'd do it in posh English
• The importance of delivery
• A summary of my suggestions

Overview

The best way to say happy birthday in posh English is probably something like 'I wish you a delightful birthday' or 'I hope you have a splendid birthday'.

Introduction

This is a question that comes up quite a lot, and weirdly I have been asked by people who are from the UK and elsewhere. This does make me wonder if the meaning of the word posh is different depending on where you live. If this is true, then it's difficult for me to give a meaningful answer to anyone other than people who are close enough to me, but I'll try. The way I see it, if you're not sure what it means, then it's probably not really that important to you and therefore there isn't much point doing it. As I'm typing this I'm realising that this isn't very helpful because if you're reading this your intention probably isn't to say happy birtdhay in a posh way for yourself, it's probably for someone else. So let's just try to work out what we mean by posh. If you want my help with this (which I assume you do otherwise you wouldn't be reading this), just send me an email at the address shown on this page. Or if you'd rather stay anonymous just use the form on that page.

What does 'posh' really mean?

As I mentioned above, this means different things to different people. I suspect that for most people who live in the UK it means someone who's from an upper-class family and speaks with a certain type of accent. It's hard to describe accents in text but I'll try:

• They tend not to pronounce their 'r's properly, so 'car' would sound more like 'cah', or 'rather' would sound like 'rah-thuh'.
• Their words are more drawn out than most people; they take longer to say them.
• They often make their voice higher-pitched than normal when speaking, especially when saying something exciting.
• In general their language sounds more over-the-top than usual, as if they're being silly or dramatic.

There are many ways of speaking in England and I think the easiest way to describe how someone sounds when speaking posh is that they sound like they're pretending; as if they're putting on an act. Unfortunately, though this doesn't help us much with how we should wish someone a happy birthday because it's more about how we deliver it rather than what we actually say. But before we get into that let's look at some more common examples of how you'd wish someone happy birthday.

Some common ways to wish someone a happy birthday

This is a bit silly really because the obvious answer is just "happy birthday", but for the sake of completeness let's look at some variations.

1. I hope you have a great day
   This could apply to any kind of celebration or event so it's pretty generic but also pretty safe.
2. I hope your day is filled with fun
   Again pretty generic and could be used for any event but could also be used for other purposes. Like if you're buying something for someone else which involves them having fun or enjoying themselves (I'll leave it up to your imagination what that might be).
3. I hope your day brings you lots of surprises
   For a birthday or similar event this could be appropriate even though it's not specific. This could also work well as part of a product description such as an unusual gift for him or her etc.

I guess really it doesn't matter whether we're wishing someone happy birthday or expressing any other wish; we're just saying we hope they enjoy whatever it is they're doing.

A quick look at how we'd normally say it in English without being silly or over-the-top

The easiest way is just "happy birthday", which works perfectly well as long as you're sure they'll understand English. If not I'd recommend translating into their own language using Google translate or something similar. You never know though; maybe they will understand - English words are becoming more popular all around the world now so it's very possible they will understand what you're saying even if they can't speak any English at all themselves. Another option would simply be "have a great day" - again that's assuming they'll understand English. The word 'great' isn't too difficult though so I'm sure they'll get it. Basically anything along those lines will do; personally I'd go with "happy birthday" first just because everyone says that all the time.

Some suggestions for how we'd do it in posh English

This all depends on what we mean by posh (as discussed above) but I think generally we'd use words that aren't used very often such as delightful and splendid which I suppose makes sense because these words are usually only ever used by people who speak in a stereotypically posh way.

The other feature of speaking like this is being over-the-top and using longer sentences than normal which again makes sense because that's what these people tend to do; use lots of unnecessary words when one simple word would suffice.

The trouble with giving advice about anything like this is that it's very subjective; most people will agree with me when I say delightful and splendid are typically posh words but some will disagree and probably think they're completely normal because they've grown up hearing them often so they're used to them.

It does depend on where you're from but generally speaking there aren't many places where these words are commonly used so I'd say they're commonly considered posh words.

The importance of delivery

This might sound silly but honestly if you want my advice (which presumably you do) then I'd suggest thinking less about what words you use and focus more on how they're delivered.

The easiest thing here would be watch some video clips online somewhere - perhaps watch some old British movies from decades ago where you'll hear plenty of examples of people speaking poshly. Once you've done that you'll soon realise that generally it's less about which words are being spoken and far more about how they're pronounced.

• The voice should be higher-pitched than normal
  Whether we're talking about men or women here their voices tend naturally have quite high-pitched voices compared with most people; especially women. You'll notice whenever they're excited about something their voice goes almost squeaky as if they're trying hard (and failing) not to laugh.
• Their tone should sound fake
  This point is hard to describe because it's unusual for anyone speak with such an exaggerated tone unless they're pretending; unless that's just me having never heard anyone actually talk like that seriously before? Or maybe everyone I've heard talking like this was actually pretending? Who knows...

A summary of my suggestions

Like everything else I've written here, this depends entirely on where you're from and who you're talking about - I can only assume you're asking about someone from England somewhere - maybe that's unfair but that's my assumption anyway.

• If I'm right in making those assumptions then I'd recommend going with something like 'I wish you a delightful birthday' or perhaps 'I hope your day is splendid'.
• If you'd rather play it safe however then I'd just go with 'happy birthday'; the chances are either they'll hate it (which isn't necessarily bad) or they'll find it funny because that's probably what they expect anyway. If nothing else it'll give them something interesting to talk about!

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