Canada· hard

bonne fête

good celebration

Meaning

wishing someone a happy birthday

Explanation

In Québec and Switzerland this is simply how you wish someone happy birthday, quite different from standard French usage, where fête marks a person's saint's day rather than their birthday.

Example

Bonne fête, Marie, j'espère que tu passes une belle journée !

Happy birthday, Marie, I hope you have a lovely day!

Origin

In most of France, bonne fête is reserved for someone's saint's day, the feast day of the saint they're named after. Québec and Switzerland shifted the phrase to mean birthday instead.

Where

CanadaSwitzerland

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