It’s combined with the verb 드리다 (deurida), which is the formal version of “to give”. The verb here is 축하하다 (chukahada), which means “to celebrate” or “to congratulate”.
You can use this phrase when saying “happy birthday” to people who are much older than you. 생신을 축하드립니다! (saengsineul chukadeurimnida) It’s easy to learn so why not give it a try? Formal ‘Happy Birthday’ in Korean 1. But if you can’t read the Korean alphabet yet, it’d be a massive boost to your Korean learning if you did. We’ll give you the different formal levels to pronounce it below in the 한글 (Hangeul), the Korean alphabet, with romanization. You would likely use this version of “birthday” with people such as your grandparents or older relatives. However, if you want to refer to the birthday of somebody who is a lot older than you then you should use the word 생신 (saengsin) instead. You can also use it when referring to the birthday of somebody who is of a similar or younger age to yourself. You can use this word when referring to your own birthday. The regular word for birthday is 생일 (saengil). These are keywords to know if you want to learn to speak Korean. Some verbs with an honorific form include “to exist”, “to eat”, and “to sleep”. Some other nouns with this honorific form include “age”, and “house”. “Birthday” is one of those special Korean words that have an honorific version of the word, which is used when talking to people about a generation (or more) older than you. First, let’s start with the word “birthday” itself.