How to Wish Someone the Best Birthday Ever

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Greeting messages can be hard to write, and birthday wishes are no exception.

To help English learners write the best birthday wishes they can, we’ve put together the following list of suggestions, separated into message types. Feel free to write them on your next birthday card or simply use them as inspiration!

Type 1: Wish them a nice day

The point of birthday greetings is to wish someone a nice day. Of course, you can say, “I hope you have a nice day” or simply “Have a nice day.” But why choose these when there are more interesting options? Try one of the phrases below instead:

Wishing you the best birthday ever!

This message is simple and direct.

Hope it’s a good one!

English speakers often say this along with the standard birthday greeting: “Happy birthday! Hope it’s a good one!”

This means “I hope it’s a good birthday.” Notice that the "I" has been omitted from this phrase. This gives the greeting a more casual and friendly feeling.

Hope you enjoy your special day.

It's common to refer to occasions like birthdays and anniversaries as "special days." This can help you avoid repeating the same word multiple times in the same message.

I hope all your birthday wishes come true!

This phrase comes from the custom of making wishes on birthdays. This is a good phrase to use with kids, but it can still be fun to send to adult friends.

Type 2: Wish them a good future

The only thing better than wishing someone a good day is wishing them a good year! Here are some great options to try:

Wishing you an amazing year ahead!

I hope you have an amazing year!

Wishing you many happy, healthy years to come.

You can customize your birthday message by replacing “happy” and “healthy” with other positive adjectives, such as “successful,” “fun-filled,” or “exciting” — whatever you think your friend will like.

Wishing you an amazing day and a wonderful year ahead!

Don’t forget that you can also wish people a great day and year at the same time, as you can see above.

Wishing you all the best on your birthday!

When you wish someone “all the best,” you are hoping that all the best things happen to them.

Type 3: When you forgot to wish someone a happy birthday

Unfortunately, we don't always remember to send a birthday greeting on someone's actual birthday. In these cases, what can we say? Here are some options:

Hope you had a wonderful birthday!

This is simply “Hope you have a wonderful birthday” in the past tense. You can put some of the previous phrases in past tense for the same effect. For example:

Hope you enjoyed your special day!
Hope it was a good one!

Happy Belated Birthday!

“Happy belated birthday” is a popular English phrase for wishing someone a late birthday. For example:

“Happy belated birthday! Hope you had a wonderful day!”
“Happy belated birthday! Hope you ate lots of cake!”

Wish I could have been there to celebrate with you!

If your friend threw a birthday party and you couldn’t go, this is a great message to send.

On the other hand, if you cannot attend a party that has not happened yet, you can say, “Wish I could be there to celebrate with you!”

Wrap-up

We hope this has given you plenty of inspiration to write the best birthday message ever! Although all of the options we've listed here are great choices, if you're not sure if what you've written sounds quite right, talk to a tutor. They can check what you've written or give you ideas for messages for a specific situation.

And if you need help with other kinds of greetings, take a look at some of our related articles:

How to Congratulate Someone In English and Actually Mean It

How to Say "I Love You" in English and Actually Mean It

13 Popular Phrases of Encouragement

other ways to say