How To Say "Happy Father's Day" In Chinese

“Happy Father’s Day” in Chinese is “父亲节快乐 (fù qīn jié kuài lè)!”

Here’s the breakdown:

Wishing someone “Happy Father’s Day” in Chinese follows the same formula as any other holiday well wishes. It’s shown below:

“[insert holiday here] 快乐!”

Sometimes you might see it in this form:

“祝你父亲节快乐！(zhù nǐ fù qīn jié kuài lè)”

Translation: “I wish you a Happy Father’s Day!”

However, you must be careful on using this Chinese sentence formula loosely. You never say this phrase for certain holidays, such as QingMing Festival, as some holidays are much more somber and serious.

GOOGLE TRANSLATE GETS THE CHINESE TRANSLATION WRONG!

Popular translation tool Google Translate actually makes a mistake on this one. Either that, or they are really strict about grammar: you have to type in "Happy Father's Day," including the apostrophe, in order to get the correct translation. Google's Translation, "快乐的父亲节" means "[a] Happy Father's Day" as if Father's day was an object. (Like "a happy cat.")

This mistake is because Google Translate cannot intuitively deduce your question to the degree that another human being can. While Google is great for a quick translation tool, they can often make these errors. That's why learning Chinese from a live, Chinese tutor is still the best way to study the language.

As mentioned in our lesson preview about family, a formal way to say “Father” in Chinese is “父亲(fù qīn).” The more casual and common way to say “Father” or “Dad” in Chinese is “爸爸 (bà ba.)”

Here are some other things you can say to your father on this day:

“I LOVE YOU, DAD.”

How to say it: “我爱你,爸爸。 (wǒ ài nǐ bà ba)”

We’ve mentioned before that saying “I love you” isn’t commonplace in Chinese culture, but it’s not unheard of. This is a useful phrase you could say to your father.

“DAD, THANK YOU FOR EVERYTHING.”

How to say it: “爸爸，谢谢你为我做的一切。" (bà ba xiè xiè nǐ wèi wǒ zuò de yí qiè)

This would more closely translate into “Dad, thank you for everything that you’ve done for me.” It’s a sentence used to express gratitude in Chinese, and is often said at significant life events, including graduations, wedding ceremonies, and birthdays.

“DAD, YOU’VE WORKED HARD.”

How to say it: “爸爸，你辛苦了。” (bà ba nǐ xīn kǔ le)

This is one of those Chinese sentences that has no perfect English equivalent or translation. “辛苦你了” roughly means, “you’ve worked hard.” However at the same time, in conveys a tone of gratitude and humbleness. It can mean “I’m sorry for making you work so hard,” or “thank you for working so hard.”

We hope that you learned some of these phrases! For more ways to learn Chinese online, you can sign up with TutorABC Chinese or subscribe to our blog to get updates via email! Hopefully you can say some heartfelt words to your 父亲 this Father’s Day.