• Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer

Street Smart Brazil

We teach smart Portuguese

  • Contact
  • My Account
  • Cart
  • Policies
    • Privacy Policy
    • Terms of Service
    • Disclaimer
  • Email
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • LinkedIn
  • Twitter
  • YouTube
Speak Portuguese With Ease
  • Home
  • About
  • Shop for Lessons
  • Starter Kit
  • Testimonials
  • Resources
  • Blog
Birthday Vocabulary and the Brazilian Birthday Song – with Video

Birthday Vocabulary and the Brazilian Birthday Song – with Video

posted on April 20, 2010

The Brazilian Birthday Song and Birthday Vocabulary in Portuguese - Portuguese lesson

I love celebrating birthdays! I think of a birthday as that very special day that brought us to this world and put the people we love in our lives.

Now you will be able to chat about birthdays in Portuguese, send and receive wishes of happy birthday in Portuguese, and even sing the Brazilian birthday song!

Birthday vocabulary in Portuguese

The first thing that gets students confused is the word for birthday in Portuguese:

  • aniversário

It sounds like “anniversary”, but it is not always so. If someone asks when your aniversário is, they are asking about your birthday.

You can greet your birthday friends in two ways:

  • Feliz aniversário = happy birthday
  • Parabéns = Congratulations — Yeah, we congratulate people for their special day. I love this 🙂

Now you might be wondering what to say when you want to ask about an anniversary. In this case, we would need to specify what the event is. For example:

  • aniversário de casamento = wedding anniversary

Asking someone’s age

The question about someone’s age is totally different in English and in Portuguese:

  • Quantos anos você tem? = How old are you?

Literally, our question is “How many years do you have?”

Here is how you answer:

  • Eu tenho 25 anos = I am 25 years old

Literally, that translates to “I have 25 years”.

Useful Phrases to talk about Birthdays in Portuguese

Here are a few useful phrases for you to talk about birthdays in Portuguese:

  • Quando é seu aniversário? = When is your birthday?
  • Meu aniversário é em setembro = My birthday is in September
  • Meu aniversário é no dia 18 de setembro = My birthday is on September 18th
  • Eu faço aniversário em setembro = I have my birthday in September
  • Mariana vai fazer 14 anos = Mariana will be 14 years old
  • Seu aniversário está perto = Your birthday is close
  • Seu aniversário está chegando = Your birthday is coming up
  • Você gosta de comemorar seu aniversário? = Do you like to celebrate your birthday?
  • Você vai fazer festa? = Are you going to throw a party?
  • Qual  é seu signo? = What is your star sign?

The Brazilian Birthday song

Brazilians sing Happy Birthday with a lot of energy. It is clearly a festive and joyful event. We sing loud, clap our hands, yell, whistle… that’s right, we know how to make noise 🙂

Below is the Brazilian Birthday song. I sing it in the video. No, I cannot sing, but I do that in this lesson for your Portuguese 🙂 

PortuguêsInglês
Parabéns pra vocêCongratulations to you
Nesta data queridaOn this dear date
Muita felicidadeMuch happiness
Muitos anos de vidaMany years of life

At the end of the song, there are variations to add joy and excitement to the celebration. For example, let’s say that it is Mariana’s birthday. At the end of the birthday song, the group will sing:

É pique, é pique
É pique, é pique, é pique
É hora, é hora
É hora, é hora, é hora
Rá Tim Bum
Mariana, Mariana, Mariana

Let’s see if I can explain what this means:

  • Pique = enthusiasm, peak momentum
  • É hora = it is time
  • Rá Tim Bum = a play with the sound of drums playing 🙂

Great, now let’s celebrate!


Click here to book a Trial Lesson!

Online Brazilian Portuguese lessons with Street Smart Brazil

Related Posts:

  • Valentine’s Day in Brazil - Dia dos Namorados
  • 4 language learning hacks for your Portuguese
  • Brazilian New Year’s Traditions and Superstitions

About Luciana Lage

I’m Luciana, founder of Street Smart Brazil. I am so happy to be able to help you in your Portuguese speaking journey! Teaching Portuguese as a foreign language was one of the best things that could have happened in my life. I’ve had the privilege of teaching Portuguese at the University of California, Berkeley and the University of San Francisco. Now I am fully dedicated to the Street Smart Brazil community.

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Bianca

    June 29, 2021 at 4:35 pm

    I was just curious if you knew why it’s customary to sing “com quem será q mariana vai casar” after the birthday songs. My family always sings it after and I never understood why it was a tradition but they sing it every year

    Reply
    • Luciana Lage

      June 29, 2021 at 5:44 pm

      I don’t know the history of that. It is common to sing that part, as you know 🙂

      Reply
  2. Randy Lee

    March 23, 2021 at 8:34 pm

    Muito obrigado por sua explicação direta a detalhada dos costumes no brasil a cantar parabéns aos nossos queridos. É exatamente o que procurava para ensinar a canção aos alunos de minha classe de introdução de português na escola secundária baixa cá em Utah, EUA.

    Reply
    • Luciana Lage

      March 24, 2021 at 2:59 pm

      Que bom, Randy! Fico feliz de ajudar 🙂

      Reply
  3. Mariana Abeid-McDougall

    May 22, 2019 at 8:00 pm

    Adorei esse post e vou compartilhar com meu marido Canadense, que aprendeu a cantar a musica pras crianças mas não entende muito o que significa 🙂

    Não se esqueça do

    “e pra Mariana nada…”

    “tudo!”

    “então como é que é?”

    “E pique, é pique…”

    🙂

    Reply
    • Luciana Lage

      June 11, 2019 at 2:15 pm

      Obrigada 🙂

      Reply
  4. Juandy

    September 9, 2016 at 6:25 pm

    Very helpfull. Keep up the good work. Muito obrigada querida!

    Reply
    • Luciana Lage

      September 10, 2016 at 3:44 am

      Muito obrigada 🙂

      Reply
  5. Bernard Brown

    July 28, 2016 at 3:36 pm

    Thanks for all your efforts…i really appreciate!

    Reply
    • Luciana Lage

      August 1, 2016 at 2:51 pm

      Obrigada!

      Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Want to see your pic by your comment? Get a free custom avatar at Gravatar.

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Primary Sidebar

Categories

  • Brazil
  • Brazilian music
  • Brazilian Portuguese
  • Business Culture
  • Culture and History
  • Flashcards
  • Food
  • Grammar
  • Idiomatic Expressions
  • Learning Languages
  • Pronunciation
  • Resources
  • Video lessons
  • Visiting Brazil
  • Vocabulary

Schedule a Trial Session

Testimonials

Street Smart Brazil has excellent and flexible training. It was able to meet our needs for ongoing Portuguese study. They also are constantly evolving their offerings which keep me involved and learn… Read more
Doran
The lessons were fantastic, and just what I wanted. The biggest difference between my Street Smart Brazil lessons and others I’ve taken is that my teacher knows English and understands what America… Read more
Bibi
When I started this journey of learning Brasilian Portuguese, I couldn’t even say “Obrigado” or “Como é seu nome?”. But now my communication skills have improved tremendously. Street Smart Brazil make… Read more
Blake
Streetsmart Brazil helped me to attain a Celpe Bras proficiency rating of advanced intermediate. Not only have I improved my reading and writing skills, I can speak more fluently on a wide range of t… Read more
Auby

Find Resources

Make your learning fun and easy with good resources.
Learn More

Recent Posts

  • Brazilian Portuguese Idiom: Não é a minha praia
  • Brazilian Books You Need on Your Bookshelf
  • How to use ONDE and AONDE in Portuguese
  • Master Question Words in Portuguese: O que, Que, Qual
  • Meio or Meia? How to say KIND OF in Portuguese

Search

Cart

Classes

  • Trial Lesson
  • One-on-One Portuguese Lessons via Video Meetings – Subscription
  • One-on-One Portuguese Lessons via Video Meetings – Packages
  • Celpe-Bras Prep Classes with Street Smart Brazil

Footer Subscribe

Footer Full CTA

Book a Trial Lesson today to get started.

Get Started Now

Footer CTA

Street Smart Brazil

  • About
  • Shop For a Portuguese Class
  • Testimonials
  • Blog

Portuguese Classes

  • Trial Lesson
  • One-on-One Portuguese Lessons via Video Meetings – Subscription
  • One-on-One Portuguese Lessons via Video Meetings – Packages
  • Celpe-Bras Prep Classes with Street Smart Brazil


Street Smart Brazil, LLC

phone 415.573.8180
email info@streetsmartbrazil.com
Oakland, California

  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of Service
  • Disclaimer
  • Sitemap

© 2014–2023 Street Smart Brazil, All Rights Reserved.