Spanish/Lessons/¿Cuándo es tu cumpleaños?

Lesson 2 &mdash; ¿Cuándo es tu cumpleaños?



Dialogue

 * Raúl: ¡Hola, Sofía! Me llamo Raúl. ¿Cuál es la fecha de hoy?
 * Sofía: Hola, Raúl. Hoy es el diecisiete de octubre.
 * Raúl: Muchas gracias. Mi cumpleaños es el viernes.
 * Sofía: ¡Feliz cumpleaños!
 * Raúl: Gracias. ¿Cuántos años tienes?
 * Sofía: Tengo veinte años.
 * Raúl: Vale. Adiós, Sofía.
 * Sofía: ¡Hasta luego!

Translation (wait until the end of the lesson).

Examples

 * Tengo diecisiete gatos
 * I have 17 cats.
 * Hay treinta y cinco aulas
 * There are 35 classrooms.
 * Tengo noventa y seis primos.
 * I have 96 cousins.
 * Hay once estudiantes en la clase de español.
 * There are 11 students in the spanish class.
 * ¡Quiero un caramelo!
 * I want a candy!
 * ¡Quiero uno!
 * I want one!

To declare the presence or existence of something (e.g. "there is," "there are"), Spanish uses hay, which is a special conjugation of the verb haber (to have). Its past form ("there was," "there were") is hubo. Another form in the past (meaning roughly "there used to be") is había. Its future form ("there will be") is habrá. All these forms are invariable in singular and plural: Había un gato aquí, Había dos gatos aquí. Attempting to construct plural forms of them ("habían", "habrán") is a very common error and is severely frowned upon.

Go to the exercises.

How old are you?
To ask someone else's age in Spanish, use Cuántos años, then one of the entries in the table below (¿Cuántos años tienes? means "How old are you?", or more literally, "How many years do you have?")

To say your age in Spanish, you use the irregular verb tener (which means "to have"), then your age, then años (which means "years"). For example, Tengo trece años means "I have 13 years" or "I am 13 years old".
 * Note
 * "Tenéis" would only be used in Spain. In Latin America, one would use "Tienen" for both the second and third plural persons.


 * Examples
 * Tengo veinte años
 * I am 20 years old.
 * ¿Cuántos años tienes?
 * How old are you?
 * Tiene ochenta y siete años.
 * He is 87 years old.
 * ¿Cuántos años tienen?
 * How old are they?

Go to the exercises.

What's the date today?
To ask for the date in Spanish, you use ¿Cuál es la fecha? or ¿Qué día es hoy? (meaning "What is the date?", or "What day is today?"). In reply, you would say Hoy es [day of the week], [date of the month] de [month of the year] (For example, Hoy es martes veinticinco de mayo is "Today is Tuesday, the 25th of May").


 * Notes
 * Neither days of the week nor months of the year are capitalised, unless at the beginning of sentences.
 * On the first of the month, some Spanish speakers say primero [First] (Hoy es domingo primero de enero).
 * You may still find the spelling setiembre in books from the early 20th century. It emerged from the way some countries pronounce the consonants in it. This spelling is not standard usage and you should avoid using it.


 * Examples
 * ¿Qué fecha es hoy? (¿A qué estamos? is used too.)
 * What is the date?
 * Hoy es miércoles veintinueve de septiembre.
 * Today is Wednesday, the 29th of September
 * Hoy es jueves quince de agosto.
 * Today is Thursday, the 15th of August.
 * Hoy es sábado dos de enero.
 * Today is Saturday, the 2nd of January.

Go to the exercises.

When's your birthday?
Although birthday translates as cumpleaños, they do not imply the same exact meaning. In English, birthday literally refers to the day of your birth, so it is possible to wish happy birthday to a newborn. In Spanish, cumpleaños literally means "completing a year" and is only used for the day in subsequent years that matches the date on which you were born. Thus, you would never say "feliz cumpleaños" to a newborn, since he still hasn't "completed a year."


 * Examples
 * Mi cumpleaños es el once de julio.
 * My birthday is on the 11th of July.
 * Mi cumpleaños es el ocho de diciembre.
 * My birthday is on the 8th of December.
 * ¿Cuándo es tu cumpleaños?
 * When is your birthday?
 * Mi cumpleaños es el sábado.
 * My birthday is on Saturday.

Go to the exercises.

Summary
In this lesson, you have learned: You should now do the exercise related to each section (found here), and translate the dialogue at the top before moving on to lesson 3...
 * How to count from cero to one septillion (cero; veintiocho; noventa; cien; un cuatrillón)
 * The days of the week (lunes; miércoles; viernes)
 * The months of the year (enero; abril; octubre; diciembre)
 * How to say your age (Tengo cuarenta años)
 * How to ask the age of others (¿Cuántos años tienes?)
 * How to say today's date (Hoy es jueves veintinueve de noviembre)
 * How to say your birthday (Mi cumpleaños es el primero de agosto; mi cumpleaños es el martes)
 * How to ask the birthday of others (¿Cuándo es tu cumpleaños?)