Birthdays can bring a lot of pressure, especially if you want to make someone feel loved on their special day. If you’re wishing someone a happy birthday, the last thing you should do is send them a plain and boring message. Instead, you should use a more fun, friendly, and creative synonym for happy birthday. Not sure what to say? Take your pick from our eleven alternatives below!
Is “Happy Birthday” Capitalized?Happy birthday is only capitalized as a greeting or title in a message. You do not need to apply the initial capitals to happy birthday in the middle of a sentence. However, as usual, the “h” in happy should be capitalized when used at the start of a sentence.
Happy Birthday, Gaby!
I hope you have a happy birthday, Gaby.
Happy birthday to you!
LanguageTool’s Grammar Checker can help ensure you’re using the correct capitalization for phrases like Happy Birthday.
When something is a piece of cake, it is very easy to do. Piece of cake is an example of an idiom (i.e., a phrase or group of words that has a meaning that isn’t immediately obvious from a literal reading of the words).
Nobody really knows where the phrase comes from. Various theories range from enslaved people in the southern US to British Army uses. In American English there is a theme of desserts or sweet things being equated with a simple task (e.g., “as easy as pie,” or a “cakewalk”).
Examples: Piece of cake in a sentenceAlthough Eric was worried the math test would be difficult, it turned out to be a piece of cake.
The level of ability in the contestants was very varied: some struggled with the task, but others found it to be a piece of cake.
The irony was delicious: no sooner had Pete said “This is a piece of cake!” then he fell flat on his face!
Concerted effort means “doing something in collaboration with others.” However, its use to describe a “determined, organized, and vigorous attempt” by an individual is increasingly common, though sometimes contested.
We’re going to be as straightforward as possible and state that:
Concerted effort originally referred to a collaborative effort.
But concerted effort is also commonly used when referring to an individual to mean “an organized and determined attempt.”
But is one right and the other wrong? That’s what this blog post aims to uncover. We promise we will make a concerted effort to be as clear and informative as possible.
Let’s get started! We’ll teach you if “concerted effort” must be applied to a group of people or whether it can be used with an individual, too.
Finished first place in a race you’ve been training exhaustively for? Finally got a black belt in karate? Passed a test you’ve been struggling with for quite some time? These are all achievements for which someone might express praise by saying, “Congratulations!”
It’s a ubiquitous phrase, meaning you probably hear it often for various types of goals and milestones reached. If you’re looking for other ways to say this expression, then congratulations, you’ve come to the right place. Below, we’ll give you fifteen congratulatory words and phrases you can use instead.
You can also try our Paraphrase Tool to explore more ways to say congratulations.
How To Spell “Congratulations”The word congratulations is often incorrectly spelled with a “d.” Remember that congratulations is always spelled with a “t” in the middle of the word and the last syllable.
✅Congratulations on graduating from high school!
❌Congradulations graduating from high school!
You can use our Grammar Check tool to ensure you’re spelling words like congratulations correctly.
English has countless frequently used phrases, including several expressions that we use to get our point across. Of course, they’re beneficial to know, but we should be careful not to depend on them. If we use only these common phrases, it may seem as if our vocabulary is limited.
One of these expressions is I understand, which straightforwardly conveys one’s comprehension of something. Consider adding the following phrases to your vocabulary if you want to sound more fluent.
The English idiom take it with a grain of salt means “treat information with a degree of skepticism and doubt.” It is a slightly muted way of saying that you do not find the source of the information to be trustworthy.
Examples: Take it with a grain of saltMy advice with any election communication is to take it with a grain of salt.
As with any advertising claim, it is always best to take it with a grain of salt and check out the details.
Some people call me cynical and disbelieving, but experience has taught me that when faced with something that appears too good to be true, it is best to take it with a grain of salt.
Rule of thumb is an idiom that describes a common-sense but approximate way of deciding on a course of action. Tradespeople will often know the span of their hands and the length of their thumbs and use them as a rough-and-ready way of measuring. So rule of thumb became a way of describing a rough guideline.
Examples: Rule of thumbWhen you are writing an essay for an examination, a good rule of thumb is to spend 25 to 30 percent of the time available on planning.
If you want to turn square feet into square meters, a good rule of thumb is to divide by ten.
When it comes to providing the customer with an estimate, you need to measure accurately, as rule of thumb measurements can be way off.
The idiomplay it by ear dates back at least to the 17th century. It comes from the world of music and refers to playing an instrument not from sheet music or memory but responding to the situation.
Instruments like the violin and cello have to be played by ear, even when using sheet music, because there are no marked notes on the fingerboard, and they can go out of tune mid-performance.
As an idiom, play it by ear means not having a plan and responding to events as they unfold. It can have positive or negative connotations. In the positive sense, it means staying flexible and not rigidly sticking to a plan. In the negative sense, it means being unprepared and taking a chance that you will get away with it.
Examples: Play it by earWith interactive lessons where the students participate, the teacher has to have the confidence to play it by ear because you never know what will happen next.
Having learned to play the piano from sheet music, the next big step was to be able to play it by ear.
We used to book hotels in advance for our road trips, but now we are more carefree and play it by ear as we go.
Do you ever come across the phrase I could care less? Or maybe you’ve even used this expression yourself. While undeniably common, is it correct?
If you want to express indifference about something while being as grammatically accurate as possible, you should know that I could care less is highly debated despite its popularity.
Below, we’ll cover the difference between I could care less and I couldn’t care less, so you can understand why one is favored over the other.
Many people use the term “fiancé” to refer to their future wife, but this is incorrect.
We’ll teach you if “concerted effort” must be applied to a group of people or whether it can be used with an individual, too.