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You are here: Home / Questions / Reader question: “Boldog szülinapot or születésnapot?”

Reader question: “Boldog szülinapot or születésnapot?”

May 14, 2017 By Let's Learn Hungarian!

We have another great question from one of our reader/listeners, Leanne!

Leanne asks,

Can you please tell me what the difference is between születésnapot and szülinapot? I notice when giving birthday greetings some of our relatives type “szülinapot” instead of “Születésnapot.” Also I am curious to know what is the translation for the phrase ‘Isten Éltessen.’ I could not find “Éltessen” in my dictionary. Do you know?

birthday party picture
“Isten éltessen!”

Györgyi: Well, we use these two words to wish someone a happy birthday. We usually say “Boldog szülinapot” to close friends or family, and “Boldog születésnapot” to everyone else. They both mean “Happy Birthday!”

Steven: “Szülinapot” is just a shortened version of “születésnapot,” in the same way that we might shorten “birthday” to “b-day.” There seems to be a trend nowadays to shorten everything in Hungarian using “i.” For example, “történelem” (history) –> “töri.”

Györgyi: Yes, it’s very common to shorten long words in Hungarian! It’s a kind of slang, I guess.

Steven: How about “Isten éltessen?”

Györgyi: This is a somewhat old-fashioned way of saying “Happy Birthday!” It’s not as common nowadays.

Steven: It literally means, “May God let you live long!”

Now here’s the crazy grammatical explanation for this expression:

“Éltessen” is “él” (live) in the causative. The causative form is used when you “make someone do something,” so “él” becomes “éltet,” or “someone makes someone live.”

But here, “éltessen” is in the conjunctive/imperative/subjunctive mood in the 3rd person causative, so “éltet” becomes “éltessen,” which means, “may somebody let you live” (the grammatical object “you” is implied). Finally, when you add “Isten” as the subject, then that “somebody” is God! I hope I got all that right.

Györgyi: I didn’t understand that at all!

Steven: I guess the important thing to know is that “Isten éltessen!” is another way to say, “Happy Birthday!”

Please send us your questions about the Hungarian language, and we’ll do our best to answer them!

Filed Under: Questions Tagged With: boldog szülinapot, happy birthday, isten éltessen, slang

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Comments

  1. Robin says

    May 17, 2017 at 3:12 pm

    So “Isten éltessen” is rather like “Many happy returns (of the day”, also uncommon today but not in the past.

    • Let's Learn Hungarian! says

      May 17, 2017 at 3:18 pm

      Yes, good comparison Robin 🙂
      Steven

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