Romanian is an ancient language that’s spoken by around 24 million people worldwide, specifically across Romania and Moldova in Eastern Europe. It’s got roots that go all the way back to Roman times and old Latin, so it also has a lot of crossover with other Latinate languages.
With Romanian speakers spread all across the world, you may have friends or loved ones who are native Romanian speakers. If you want to celebrate and surprise them, why not wish them a happy birthday in Romanian? Not sure how to do it?
Don’t worry, we’ve got you covered with this short article. Are you ready to learn some Romanian? Awesome, let’s dive in and find out more!
How to Say Happy Birthday in Romanian
Realistically, the way to say happy birthday in Romanian doesn’t translate literally to ‘happy birthday’ at all. The popular way to say happy birthday in Romanian is La mulţi ani, which you’d pronounce as La mul-tsi ani. This actually means ‘to many years’, and is a celebration of you reaching another milestone in your life.
Even though it doesn’t exactly mean happy birthday, it is the most common birthday greeting so it’s well worth learning how to say it and how to write it down in a message or in a birthday card.
Give it a couple of goes to get a feel for the language before your friend’s birthday. Even if you don’t hit the pronunciation exactly right, the context and the effort will go a long way with your loved ones.
Alternative Celebratory Phrases in Romanian
If you don’t want to say happy birthday or to many years to your friends or loved ones, there are plenty of alternative celebratory Romanian phrases that you can use.
Some are more specific to birthdays and others are more general, while some lend themselves more to be written down than spoken. Have a read-through and see which Romanian words and phrases work for your specific situation!
The first one you can use is a phrase that’s commonly found written down in Romanian birthday cards. It literally means ‘a happy birthday to you’. In Romanian, you’d write Toate urările de bine. If you want to say it out loud, you can pronounce it as ‘Toh-ateh u-rah-ree-leh de bee-neh’.
If you want something that’s a little bit more formal or something that you can say around the New Year period, you can say ‘I hope you have a good year’ or Să ai un an bun, which is pronounced as Saa-ee un an boon.
Sometimes you want more general celebratory phrases to use. If you want to learn one or two Romanian phrases that cover weddings, promotions, birthdays, new houses, match wins, and more, learning one of the following is going to give you the most versatile phrases in Romanian.
It might sound a bit formal, but saying ‘All the best’, works as a greeting card sentiment or a nice way to sign off a phone call or email. In Romanian, this sentiment is Toate cele bune . If you want to say it out loud, you can pronounce it as Toh-ateh cheleh boo-neh.
Finally, if you watch a catch-all celebratory phrase to say in Romanian, learn how to say congratulations. It’s simply Felicitări in Romanian and is pronounced as Fel-each-ee-tari. Give it a couple of practice runs before your friend’s birthday to make sure you can get the pronunciation down!
How to Sing the Happy Birthday Song in Romanian
Weirdly enough, in Romania, there are two different birthday songs that you can sing: Multi Ani Traiasca or La Mulţi Ani. They have completely different melodies and completely different lyrics to each other, so make sure you know which one is likely to be sung at your friend’s birthday so you’re not caught out!
Multi Ani Traiasca
The lyrics for Multi Ani Traiasca are below and the translation is further down for reference. It’s pretty long just to warn you, but there are a ton of repeated verses so once you have a couple of them down you should be in business!
“Mulți ani trăiască!
Mulți ani trăiască!
La mulți ani!
Mulți ani trăiască!
Mulți ani trăiască!
La mulți ani!
Cine să trăiască?
Cine să trăiască?
La mulți ani!
Cine să trăiască?
Cine să trăiască?
La mulți ani!
*name* să trăiască!
*name* să trăiască!
La mulți ani!
*name* să trăiască!
*name* să trăiască!
La mulți ani!”
English translation of Multi Ani Traiasca:
“Many more years!
Many more years!
Happy Birthday!
Many more years!
Many more years!
Happy Birthday!
Who will live long?
Who will live long?
Happy Birthday!
Who will live long?
Who will live long?
Happy Birthday!
*name* will live long!
*name* will live long!
Happy Birthday!
*name* will live long!
*name* will live long!
Happy Birthday!”
La Mulţi Ani
The alternative Romanian happy birthday song goes like this:
“La mulţi ani,
cu sănătate,
să vă dea Domnul tot ce doriţi.
Zile senine
şi fericire
la mulţi ani, să trăiţi”
Which translates to:
“Happy birthday to you
with health,
God may give you all that you wish
beautiful days
and happiness
happy birthday, live long.”
Let’s Greet a Romanian a Happy Birthday!
So, if you want to impress your Romanian friends or loved ones on their next special day, wishing them many returns in their native language is a surefire way to do it.
Romanian is a beautiful language with lots of similarities to other Romance languages, but you should still give yourself plenty of time to practice your Romanian greetings before the big day – especially if you’re planning on singing the lengthy happy birthday song!
What are your favorite greetings and happy birthday messages in Romanian? Let me know in the comments below!
More on Learning to Say Happy Birthday:
- Happy Birthday in Navajo
- Happy Birthday in Portuguese
- Happy Birthday in Hungarian
- Happy Birthday in Scottish Gaelic
- Happy Birthday in Bulgarian
- The Maori Way to Say Happy Birthday
Dayna Brockbank is a travel and language-learning blogger who has lived around the world but has now settled in Nice, France. She speaks 3 languages at varying levels of fluency: Spanish, Italian, and French, and graduated with a Bachelor’s in Spanish Education. She and her husband focus on making travel part of life by living cheaply and traveling on a budget.