Feliz cumpleaños. — Happy birthday.

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But, not so fast; what if it’s a “sweet sixteen” or, the very important coming-of-age party for a Latin American girl—her 15th birthday? Well, if it’s the latter, it’s called a quinceañera and it means fifteenth birthday celebration. If you want to wish her well, you would say:

Te deseo una quinceañera feliz. — Have a happy fifteenth birthday party (celebration).

What if you want to include their age in the greeting? For example, you want to say: “Happy 19th birthday.” Well, that’s a trick question and I’ll show you why.

If you enter “Happy nineteenth birthday” into one of those language translators, you’ll get back something like this: Feliz cumpleaños decimonoveno.

Here’s the problem with that: decimonoveno is the literal—ordinal—translation. In the real world, Spanish ordinal numbers (first, second, third…nineteenth, etc…) are rarely used after ten. In the case of the nineteenth birthday, you would instead say:

Feliz cumpleaños del número diecinueve. — Happy birthday [of the] number nineteen.

…or simply,

Feliz cumpleaños del diecinueve. — Happy birthday [of the] nineteen.

Now, if the celebrant will be (or became) ten or younger, here are the Spanish ordinal numbers you could use:

primero(a) — first
segundo(a) — second
tercero(a) — third
cuarto(a) — forth
quinto(a) — fifth
sexto(a) — sixth
séptimo(a) — seventh
octavo(a) — eighth
noveno(a) — ninth
décimo(a) — tenth

For example:

¿Fue el quinto cumpleaños de María? — Was it Maria's fifth birthday?

Two more rules for Spanish ordinals:

1. Ordinals must agree in number and gender of the nouns they modify. For example:

Es la quinta vez que te llamo hoy. — This is the fifteenth time I'm calling you today.

2. The “o” is dropped from primero and tercero before masculine singular nouns, for example:

el primer día del mes — the first day of the month

Back to birthdays:

Hoy celebramos el primer cumpleaños del bebé. — Today we celebrate the baby's first birthday.

¡Cuando te toca el tuyo, feliz cumpleaños!

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la pena — mental or spiritual anguish, misfortune (something to be sorry about that's not physical pain)

Me da pena. — It gives me pain (It causes me distress.)
¡Ay, qué pena! — What a drag! (What a misfortune!)

Be careful, because pena is a “false friend” corresponding to “pain”—it does not mean physical pain.

el dolor — pain, usually physical
dolor — to hurt, to ache, to feel pain

Tengo dolor de cabeza. — I have a headache.
Doctor, me duele la cabeza. — Doctor, my head aches.
Le duele la espalda. — His back hurts.

Whether or not you caused the pain, you will want to express your sympathy.

compadecer — to sympathize (literally, to suffer with)
Lo compadezco — I sympathize

sentir — to feel, to sense
Lo siento — I'm sorry

Lo siento is also appropriate for a social gaffe, but when you are responsible you will want to use a form of…

disculparse — to be forgiven

…where you are literally asking not to be held culpable.

Suppose you step on someone’s toe, you momentarily forget a name, you forget an appointment—there are so many small social misfortunes. You say:

¡Discúlpeme, por favor! — Forgive me, please!

or simply,

¡Disculpe! — Forgive! (me, is implied)

(Background for grammar buffs: the verb is disculpar “to forgive” but the form is the present subjunctive, conveying “May you forgive…” or “I hope you forgive…”)

If you have to interrupt someone at a task, in order to get their attention, you should apologize by saying:

Disculpe la molestia… — Forgive the bother…

And no, you are not asking advance forgiveness for some illegal act; molestar is another “false friend” meaning “bother”, not molest.

Finally, let’s deal with situations where you need to apologize in advance for what you are about to do, such as step in front of someone to reach your seat in a theater, or a bus or plane. Or you may need to excuse yourself from a group such as at a dinner table or a conversational gathering. In these cases you are actually asking permission, so remember to say:

con su permiso por favor — with your permission please

or simply,

con permiso — permit (me)

And if you should have the bad luck to trip and fall into someone’s lap as you clamber to your seat, by all means say:

¡perdóneme! — Pardon me! (please)

or simply,

¡perdón! — pardon! (me)

Just don’t say permiso in the above case. ¡Ay, qué pena! (How embarrassing!)

Here is a list of words and expressions on how to say you’re sorry in Spanish—with related phrases:

compadecer — to sympathize with
lo compadezco — I sympathize
disculpar — to forgive, to exculpate
disculparse — to be forgiven, to be sorry
discúlpeme — forgive me
el dolor — pain, hurt
dolor de cabeza — headache
doler — to hurt, to ache, to feel pain
me duele la cabeza — my head hurts, aches
la molestia — bother, annoyance
molestar — to bother, to annoy
la pena — mental pain, anguish, distress
me da pena — it causes me distress
sentir — to feel, to sense
lo siento — I'm sorry (for something)

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Never mind the stereotype about countries with Spanish speakers being “mañana” land! Urban people all over the globe need to keep track of the time, and Spanish speakers are no exception. People need to keep appointments, watch games, meet people, have office-hours and store-hours and say how long an event is scheduled or expected to last. Now we are going to sort out some ways of conversing about tiempo ‘time’ in Spanish.

The basic question you might need to ask, if you don’t have access to your watch or cell phone is:

¿Qué hora es? — What time is it?

It’s not a a bad conversation opener, either, in which case you would want to be more polite and considerate:

¿Qué hora es, por favor? — What time is it, please?
¿Tiene usted la hora? — Do you have the time?
Hágame el favor de decirme qué hora es. — Do me the favor of telling me what time it is.

As in English, the “be” verb is used in time expressions. Remember, there are two “be” verbs in Spanish—ser and estar. Even though we all know time is fleeting, the verb used in Spanish time expressions is ser, not estar. If it is one o’clock, or one plus any number of minutes up to two o’clock, the verb is singular es. For all other times the verb is plural son.

Es la una. — It's one o'clock.
Es la una y veinte. — It's 1:20.

(Notice the feminine article la, which agrees with the understood hora.)

Son las dos. — It's two o'clock.
Son las dos en punto. — It's exactly two o'clock.
Son las dos y media. — It's half past two.
Son las dos y cuarto. — It's two-fifteen.
Son las dos menos cuarto. — It's a quarter to two.
Son las dos y cuarenta. — It's 2:40.
Son las tres menos veinte. — It's twenty of three.

If it is necessary to specify A.M. or P.M.:

Son las cuatro de la tarde. — It's four in the afternoon.
Son las cuatro de la mañana. — It's four in the morning.
Son las diez de la noche. — It's ten at night.

[review the numbers in article How To Learn Spanish: Numbers 1-100]

But note that official times in Spanish-speaking countries are normally given on a twenty-four hour basis:

a las trece horas — at thirteen zero zero (or, incorrectly: thirteen hundred hours) (one o'clock)
a las trece horas con diez minutos — at thirteen ten (1:10)
La película empieza a las veinte horas. — The movie begins at eight o'clock.

If your bus leaves for Michoacán…

a las ocho horas

…you can be sure that it will be at 8 o’clock in the morning.

Some benchmark but non-numerical time expressions are:

a mediodía — at noon
a medianoche — at midnight
al amanecer — at dawn
al anochecer — at sunset

Notice the first two do not require an article, but the last two have the masculine article el contracted with the preposition a ‘at’. a + el becomes al.

Let’s see how some of these expressions work. Raúl and Elena are discussing their plans for the day.

Elena:
Voy de compras con mamá a mediodía. — I'm going shopping with mother at noon.

Raúl:
Bueno, ya son las doce y media. Ya estás en atraso. — Well, it's already twelve-thirty. You are already late.

Elena:
¡Ay! — Oh-oh!

Raúl:
Ay, no. Me equivoqué. Mi reloj está adelantado. — No, I was mistaken. My watch is fast (advanced).

El reloj de la cocina da las doce y cuarto. — The clock in the kitchen says (gives) twelve-fifteen.

Elena:
En todo caso, es hora de irme. ¡Chao! — Anyway, it is time for me to leave. Chow!

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The next discussion of time will continue, with parts of the day, durations of time and other time expressions–all enhorabuena ‘well and good’.

Anyone who plans to speak Spanish will need to refer to the day and date of some event. You may want to see if a memo or a newspaper edition is current. You may want to issue an invitation or specify the day and date of a meeting. Possibly you may even wake up some morning and say to no one in particular…

¿Hoy qué día es? — (Today) What day is it?

Hoy es lunes. — Today is Monday.
Hoy es martes. — Today is Tuesday
Hoy es miércoles. — Today is Wednesday
Hoy es jueves. — Today is Thursday
Hoy es viernes. — Today is Friday
Hoy es sábado. — Today is Saturday
Hoy es domingo. — Today is Sunday

Notice that in Spanish the days are not written with a capital letter as they are in English. This is also true for the months.

Both days and months take the masculine article el or un when an article is required. But you could say:

Estamos en enero. — We're in January (this is January).
Estamos en febrero. — This is February.

…and so on. These are non-specific utterances, treating months as though they were like seasons, or temporadas:

Estamos en verano. — We're in summer (this is summertime).
Estamos en invierno. — This is winter.
Estamos en primavera. — This is springtime.
Estamos en otoño. — This is fall.

If you mean to be specific about the date, you would ask:

¿En cuál fecha estamos? — On what date are we?

or…

¿Cuál es la fecha de hoy? — What is the date today?

The response requires additional grammatical particles.

Estamos a dos de abril. — We're on the second of April.

Unlike in English, all the days of the month except the first use cardinal or counting numbers. Only the first of the month is said in Spanish with the ordinal form.

el primero de abril — the first of April (April 1st)
el dos de abril — the second of April (April 2nd)
el tres de abril — the third of April (April 3rd)
.
.
.
el treinta de abril — April thirtieth (30th)

This is true for all the months.

Suppose the question is about a recurring event:

¿Cuándo vas a la lección de piano? — When do you go to your piano lesson?
Voy los lunes a las tres. — I go Mondays at three.

A one-time event:

Tengo una cita médica el cuatro de octubre. — I have a medical appointment on the 4th of October.
Tengo una cita médica el cuatro. — I have a medical appointment on the fourth.

Note—in the Spanish sentence above—that where English time expression may use the preposition “on”, no preposition is used in Spanish.

If you want to specify the year, use de:

Gabriel García Márquez nació en Colombia el seis de marzo de 1928. — Gabriel García Márquez was born in Colombia on March 6, 1928.

When you say a year in Spanish, you read out all the place values, so 1928 is:

mil novecientos veintiocho — one thousand nine hundred twenty-eight (we'd say: nineteen twenty-eight).

In other words, in Spanish—years—there is no grouping of digits into tens, as in English.

Finally, for today:

El siglo XXI (veintiuno) es el siglo actual. — The twenty-first century is the present century.

La inauguración de la administración actual tomó lugar el veinte de enero de dos mil nueve. — The inauguration of the present administration took place on January 20, 2009.

Next time we’ll talk about other aspects of time: seasons, the time of day, parts of the day…

Aprovéchense del tiempo. — Don’t waste time!

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Raúl and his wife Elena are getting ready to go out. Elena needs to know something about the weather in order to dress appropriately.

Elena:
Raúl, no sé si llevar un suéter o no. ¿Cómo es el tiempo?
Raul, I don't know whether to wear a sweater or not. How is the weather?

Raúl:
Bueno, en la tarde estaba nublado. Creo que va a llover. Además del suéter creo que debemos llevar un paraguas.
Well, this afternoon it was cloudy. I think it's going to rain. Besides the sweater I think we'd better take an umbrella.

They go out the door.

Elena:
Tienes razón. Ya está lloviznando.
You are right. It's already drizzling.

Another time Elena is speaking by phone with her tía (aunt):

Elena:
Tía, lo siento mucho pero no vamos a llegar a la hora de la cena. Hace mal tiempo y los vuelos están en atraso. Dicen que si sigue la tormenta los vuelos serán cancelados completamente.
Auntie, I'm sorry but we are not going to arrive by the dinner hour. The weather is bad and the flights are delayed. They say if the storm continues the flights will be completely canceled.

Tía:
No se preocupen, queridos. Cuídense y nos vemos más tarde.
Don't worry, dears. Take care of yourselves, and we'll see you later.

One day at the office Raúl is having a conversation with a coworker:

Raúl:
¡Qué tal este tiempo! Parece que hay un cambio del tiempo cada dos horas. Prefiero un clima donde el tiempo es menos variable.
What about this weather! It seems that there's a change in the weather every two hours. I prefer a climate where the weather is less variable.

Eduardo:
Por lo menos no es aburrido. Te gustaría vivir en Caracas, o en la región montañosa de Costa Rica. Dicen que el clima menos variable se encuentra en las latitudes tropicales a una altura de mil metros o más. ¿Qué dices?
At least it isn't boring. You would like to live in Caracas, or in the mountainous region of Costa Rica. They say the least variable climate is found in tropical latitudes at an altitude of one thousand meters or more. What do you say?

Raúl:
Basta de soñar. Con que las calles no están inundadas a la hora de salida y con irme a la playa el sábado, estoy satisfecho.
Enough dreaming. With the streets not being flooded at leaving time and with my going to the beach on Saturday, I'm satisfied.

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