When you’re late with sending your best wishes for someone’s birthday, you have plenty of options for saying you’re sorry you’re late and that you still wish them a happy birthday. If you’re using the word “belated,” however, have no doubt—happy belated birthday is the wrong way of doing it. Belated happy birthday is the correct formulation.
It seems that today it’s almost impossible to not know when someone’s birthday is, and we have social networks to thank for that. Facebook will notify you when one of your friends has a birthday and so will LinkedIn. Google+ will enter your connections’ birthdays into your calendar. Even Skype, which is not even a social network, will remind you to send birthday wishes to your contacts. But we still manage to forget about (or procrastinate on) sending best wishes for birthdays now and again. And that’s when the late greetings come into play.
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Happy Belated Birthday vs. Belated Happy Birthday
The go-to late birthday greeting contains the phrase “happy birthday” and the word belated. It comes up in two variants—happy belated birthday, and belated happy birthday. One of the two might be more commonly used in the United States, and funnily enough, it’s the one that’s not exactly logical—happy belated birthday. Let’s see why.
The Meaning of Happy Belated Birthday
The word belated means that something is late or delayed. If you wrote the phrase happy belated birthday but changed the word belated to its synonym “late,” you’d get happy late birthday. And this might be correct if the birthday were the thing that was late, but since a birthday is the anniversary of someone’s birth it can’t be late—or early, for that matter. Greetings can be late, however, so it makes much more sense to say late happy birthday, which is why belated happy birthday is the correct formulation. When you write the greeting correctly, belated modifies the phrase happy birthday. When you write it incorrectly, happy modifies the phrase belated birthday. You should keep this in mind when sending other greetings as well.
Examples of Belated Happy Birthday
It was a belated ‘Happy Birthday’ to Her Majesty as families turned out for a celebratory cream tea yesterday.—Cambridge News
Canter knew things were on the mend when Axl’s close ally, Del James, wished Slash a belated happy birthday on Twitter on July 23 last year—something unthinkable unless Axl and Slash were reconciled.—The Daily Mail
A belated happy birthday to RTÉ’s popular head of news and current affairs, Kevin Bakhurst.—The Irish Times
Greetings, enthusiasts of language precision and birthday etiquette. Allow me to delve into the intricacies of expressing belated birthday wishes, drawing upon my demonstrable expertise in linguistics and cultural nuances.
Now, when it comes to the belated birthday greeting, one must navigate the delicate balance of conveying apologies for tardiness while still expressing heartfelt wishes. The article in question posits two variants: "happy belated birthday" and "belated happy birthday," shedding light on the correct formulation.
Let's begin with the evidence-based exploration of the term "belated." The word itself denotes lateness or delay. If we were to replace "belated" with its synonym, "late," in the phrase "happy belated birthday," we'd end up with "happy late birthday." The conundrum arises here, as a birthday, being the anniversary of someone's birth, cannot be inherently late or early. Therefore, the more logically sound formulation would be "belated happy birthday."
In the correct expression, "belated" appropriately modifies the phrase "happy birthday," acknowledging the delayed nature of the greeting. Conversely, when the formulation is inverted to "happy belated birthday," the adjective "happy" modifies the noun "belated birthday," which introduces a subtle grammatical incongruity.
This distinction is crucial not only for birthdays but extends to other greetings as well. Precision in language is a testament to thoughtful communication.
Now, let's peruse some examples extracted from reputable sources to further solidify our understanding:
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"It was a belated ‘Happy Birthday’ to Her Majesty as families turned out for a celebratory cream tea yesterday." — Cambridge News
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"Canter knew things were on the mend when Axl’s close ally, Del James, wished Slash a belated happy birthday on Twitter on July 23 last year." — The Daily Mail
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"A belated happy birthday to RTÉ’s popular head of news and current affairs, Kevin Bakhurst." — The Irish Times
These examples not only showcase the correct usage of "belated happy birthday" but also emphasize its prevalence in reputable publications.
In conclusion, for the purveyors of precise language, "belated happy birthday" stands as the grammatically sound and culturally accepted formulation. May your birthday wishes never be belated, and your linguistic expressions always be impeccable.
