Happy Birthday in Polish

Poles love to celebrate so the chances are that you’ll be invited to some sort of celebration whilst in the country. The Polish language is intimidating at first glance with its seemingly endless mix of letters. Making the effort to learn a few words and phrases though can go a long way to helping you make friends with the locals, and what better to start with than learning happy birthday in Polish!

There’s actually a few different ways to wish someone happy birthday, so we’ve put together a mini-list of our favourites. We’ve also included a related wedding celebration phrase plus will actually  teach you how to sing Happy Birthday in Polish at the end! Don’t worry too much about the pronunciation, we’ve also included a rough phonetic guide to help you along.

#1 Sto Lat – “One Hundred Years!”

Pronounced – Stow laaht

Sto lat is the most popular way to say happy birthday in Polish, but in fact it doesn’t even mean happy birthday at all! Sto lat means “One Hundred Years”. It’s a way of wishing that the birthday boy or birthday girl lives to see a hundred.

#2 Wszystkiego najlepszego! – “All the Best!”

Pronounced – Veh-shist-kyay-go Nigh-lep-shay-go

Meaning “All the best”, Wszystkiego Najlepszego is a versatile phrase suitable for a number of occasions when offering your best wishes or to celebrate someone. Practice the pronunciation, it crops up in a few other phrases as we’ll see below. It’s used as a Polish happy birthday wish and at weddings.

#3 Wszystkiego najlepszego z okazji urodzin! – “All the best on your birthday!”

Pronounced – Veh-shist-kyay-go Nigh-lep-shay-go zeh Oh-kah-zee Uh-rod-zhin

A beautiful sounding phrase that you can progress to once you’ve mastered the pronunciation for Wszystkiego Najlepszego! It’s an elegant phrase to use offering your birthday wish to someone special. This one is more of a formal birthday greeting that you would expect to hear in polite company or from a family member. Having birthday drinks with friends less often.

#4 Wszystkiego najlepszego z okazji ślubu! – “All the best on your wedding day!”

Pronounced – Veh-shist-kyay-go Nigh-lep-shay-go zeh Oh-kah-zee Shlub-ooh

We know this one isn’t a birthday phrase but since you’ve done such a great job pronouncing the last two phrases we felt it would be a shame not to show you one more with ‘wzsystkiego najlepszego’.

Bonus: The Polish Happy Birthday Song!

Remember Sto Lat from earlier? Well it’s also quite prevalent in the this birthday song. No Polish happy birthday is complete without a rendition of Sto Lat. The birthday girl or birthday boy will be touched by your skilled rendition. This is basically the Polish happy birthday to you song. Start singing it in the street on a Saturday night in Krakow and the odds are good that many others will join in.

Sto lat, sto lat, niech zyje zyje nam!
Sto lat, sto lat, niech zyje zyje nam!
Jeszcze raz, jeszcze raz, niech zyje, zyje nam.
Niech zyje nam!

which means…

100 years, 100 years, they live, live (among) us!
100 years, 100 years, they live, live (among) us!
They live, live (among) us!
Again, again! They live, live (among) us!
Live (among) us!

The Sto Lat song is also sang at weddings and anniversaries so it’s worth learning it off if you’re going to be spending more time in Poland. It’s certainly one that you’ll hear on a night out whether that be by strangers or your own companions. It’s quite common for others to join in or listen in and cheer afterwards. It’s also guaranteed to impress your Polish friends or coworkers if you can join in. Every Polish happy birthday will feature this at some point.

Polish words can appear daunting but don’t let that deter you. Polish is well known for its difficulty and some words even challenge a native speaker at times! We hope you’ve enjoyed this article and learnt some useful expressions and Polish words.

If you’re looking to learn some more cool Polish phrases then check out our last article: Cheers in Polish: 10 Vodka Toasts To Impress The Locals!