Simple Birthday Translation

Hello all!

I have a simple greetings translation I hope you can help me with. I want to send a birthday message to a young friend of mine and have most of it but would like someone to review for accuracy. I am struggling with verb tenses and some phrasings and some words I don’t know a Spanish equivalent for. I’m reminded how much more studying I need to do by how hard I’m finding it to do a simple translation! :confused:
Anyway, any help you could give would be appreciated. :)

In English the message is:

Happy Birthday Rhianna! Ten years old, WOW. I remember being ten years old like it was yesterday; it was the best year ever!!! I hope this year brings you many exciting changes, new friends, and all sorts of adventures! Happy Birthday to the smartest, prettiest ten year old I know!

My translation so far is this:

Felìz Cumpleanos Rhianna! Dièz anos, WOW. Yo recuerdo cuando tenìa diez anos como era ayer, y era lo mejor ano para siempre! Yo (don’t know the word for hope) este ano te traes muchisimas (don’t know the word for exciting) cambios, nuevas amigas, y todos partes de aventuras! Feliz Cumpleanos para lo mas inteligente, bellisima (not sure if “chica” is appropriate here for a ten year old?? ) con diez anos que yo sabo!

PS I know I’m missing tildes in the above message, my key commands on this computer aren’t working at the moment but I will research it and figure it out. Oh and another question, if memory serves correctly I believe the accent mark direction should be from upper right slanting down towards the left, but currently I’m only able to do the opposite version of that. What’s the difference between accent mark directions, or is there one? Thanks in advance. :)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by alisa

In English the message is:

Happy Birthday Rhianna! Ten years old, WOW. I remember being ten years old like it was yesterday; it was the best year ever!!! I hope this year brings you many exciting changes, new friends, and all sorts of adventures! Happy Birthday to the smartest, prettiest ten year old I know!

Thanks in advance. :)

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¡Feliz Cumpleaños Rhianna! Diez años, WOW. Recuerdo cuando tenía diez años como si fuera ayer, y fue el mejor año de toda mi vida! ¡Espero que este año te traiga muchísimos cambios emocionantes, nuevas amigas, y todo tipo de aventuras! ¡Feliz Cumpleaños para la chica más inteligente y bella con diez años que conozco!


Hope it helps!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by mem286

¡Feliz Cumpleaños Rhianna! Diez años, WOW. Recuerdo cuando tenía diez años como si fuera ayer, y fue el mejor año de toda mi vida! ¡Espero que este año te traiga muchísimos cambios emocionantes, nuevas amistades, y todo tipo de aventuras! ¡Feliz Cumpleaños para la chica más inteligente y bella con diez años que conozco!


Hope it helps!

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Hi Mer,
I'd only change 1 word......you wrote amigas- and remember that that only means girl friends. Amistades is the whole lot, boy and girls.
For some rearson I'm not too keen with the con in the last sentence, I think it should be de instead. But that might just be my weird self reading/writing/typing!
Sorry, just my 2 cents.
Dragona

Quote:

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Originally Posted by mem286

¡Feliz Cumpleaños Rhianna! Diez años, WOW. Recuerdo cuando tenía diez años como si fuera ayer, y fue el mejor año de toda mi vida! ¡Espero que este año te traiga muchísimos cambios emocionantes, nuevas amigas, y todo tipo de aventuras! ¡Feliz Cumpleaños para la chica más inteligente y bella con diez años que conozco!


Hope it helps!

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Excellent, Mer, thanks so much! I am going to study the verb tenses you used. Many thanks!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Dragona

Hi Mer,
I'd only change 1 word......you wrote amigas- and remember that that only means girl friends. Amistades is the whole lot, boy and girls.
For some rearson I'm not too keen with the con in the last sentence, I think it should be de instead. But that might just be my weird self reading/writing/typing!
Sorry, just my 2 cents.
Dragona

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Thanks for the note about amistades Dragona, I didn't know that word and that's a great point. Thanks for your help!

You're right, Dragona. I didn't change it because I tried to keep her version as much as I could, but "amistades" is for both, girl and boys and sounds perfect!

As regards the preposition... "de 10 años" sounds better, though I've read "con 10 años" many times. I don't know which is correct...:o

Best regards:)

Hi Alisa,

You're right about the accent marks being backwards. On most computers running Microsoft Windows you can go to the "Regional and Language Options" within the Control Panel, select the Languages tab and then add the Spanish keyboard. If you need help let me know.

- Ryan.

Hi Mem,
Don't worry about it, I want my daughter to only have girl friends for the rest of her life, so I completely understand! :D
Dragona

Quote:

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Originally Posted by mem286

You're right, Dragona. I didn't change it because I tried to keep her version as much as I could, but "amistades" is for both, girl and boys and sounds perfect!

As regards the preposition... "de 10 años" sounds better, though I've read "con 10 años" many times. I don't know which is correct...:o

Best regards:)

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I agree with both of you, the "de" sounds better; I was thinking grammatically the "con" was correct because when you tell someone your age you say "Yo tengo...." versus "yo soy de 10 anos.." but the "de" really does sound better.

In the context of the note I would have used the neutral "amigos" (friends) rather than "amistades" (friendships).

Would I have been wrong?:confused:

Yes Vicente, you are right, amigos would be better for this type of note. amistades is not wrong AT ALL but considering this is a note for a 10 year old, amigos sounds better.
Perhaps my consideration is too regional but I am also thinking about my own son and he would not use the word amistades, he would say amigos and of course, we (his parents) referring to his friends, would say amigos as well. Perhaps when he grows older... ;) :D

What do you think Dragona?

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Originally Posted by SandraT

Yes Vicente, amigos would be better for this type of note. amistades is not wrong AT ALL but considering this is a note for a 10 year old, amigos sounds better.
Perhaps my consideration is too regional but I am also thinking about my own son and he would not use the word amistades, he would say amigos and of course, we (his parents) referring to his friends, would say amigos as well. Perhaps when he grows older... ;) :D

What do you think Dragona?

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I agree with you, Sandra! That's an excellent explanation and it's not regional (or, in any case, any such region extends to Argentina): ;). The generic term in Spanish is much more common (remember that we still* use the masculine plural as a generic reference).

*Many people are trying to convince us to avoid this use, but I think that it is a custom which will stay with us for many years. Imagine to use always the masculine and the feminine in order not to discriminate against women... I just don't agree since, in this way, the language would lose its main purpose --to communicate!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by vicente

In the context of the note I would have used the neutral "amigos" (friends) rather than "amistades" (friendships).

Would I have been wrong?:confused:

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No, Vicente, not at all... I think "amistades" sounds more formal than "amigos", that's why Sandra says a 10-year-old kid wouldn't use it... and I agree, but both are grammatically correct.:)

Yes, amistades is more formal.
Amigos is more generalized for both sexes.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by ryanjmx

Hi Alisa,

You're right about the accent marks being backwards. On most computers running Microsoft Windows you can go to the "Regional and Language Options" within the Control Panel, select the Languages tab and then add the Spanish keyboard. If you need help let me know.

- Ryan.

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Thanks for the info on this Ryan, I added the Spanish keyboard as an option but honestly I think I'll just stick with the key commands in the English keyboard for now; the Spanish one has some shortcuts that are handy but completely slow down my normally fast typing speed because of unexpected characters. I did find out how to do the correct direction on the accent marks however.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by mem286

No, Vicente, not at all... I think "amistades" sounds more formal than "amigos", that's why Sandra says a 10-year-old kid wouldn't use it... and I agree, but both are grammatically correct.:)

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Thank you Mer, Vicente, Dragona, Guadalupe & Sandra for all your suggestions!

I did end up using "amigos" versus "amistades" but learned a new word also so that's good. Oh and by the way my card was received very well. Thanks to all who helped! :)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Guadalupe

I agree with you, Sandra! That's an excellent explanation and it's not regional (or, in any case, any such region extends to Argentina): ;). The generic term in Spanish is much more common (remember that we still* use the masculine plural as a generic reference).

*Many people are trying to convince us to avoid this use, but I think that it is a custom which will stay with us for many years. Imagine to use always the masculine and the feminine in order not to discriminate against women... I just don't agree since, in this way, the language would lose its main purpose --to communicate!

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Thanks for the reminder on generic references always being masculine Guadalupe, and you make a great point about the ease of communication and how that might change if this rule changed! :)