Meaning & use
birthdays
Last updated
“birthdays” is a form of “birthday”. See that entry for the full set of meanings.
Meaning
nouncountable
The yearly celebration of the day a person was born; the date itself is also called a birthday.
Grammar: Countable noun: you can say a birthday, two birthdays, or many birthdays.
Patterns
- someone's birthday
- a birthday party
- happy birthday
My sister's birthday is on the same day as mine.
We always have a big family dinner for birthdays.
He sent me a card for my birthday.
Word forms
| singular | birthday |
|---|
Common combinations
- birthday party
- They are planning a surprise birthday party for their mother.
- birthday cake
- The children helped decorate the birthday cake.
- birthday present
- She bought a new book as a birthday present.
- happy birthday
- Everyone sang 'Happy Birthday' when she walked in.
- birthday card
- I forgot to send a birthday card, so I called instead.
Word family
- birthday noun
- The singular form, used when talking about one specific day.
Practice
Which sentence uses 'birthdays' correctly?
Choose one answer.
'We celebrate birthdays with a cake' is correct because 'birthdays' is a plural noun used as the object of 'celebrate'. Option An is odd because a person normally has one birthday a year. Option B is wrong because 'She' cannot directly modify 'birthday'; you need 'Her birthday'. Option D is wrong because 'birthday' is not a verb.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “birthdays”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.