Fiesta
Wish the birthday, raise the toast, and join the party — in Spanish, out loud.
Feliz cumpleaños is the phrase — and Argentines shorten it warmly to ¡feliz cumple!, while felicidades works as an all-purpose congratulations for birthdays, holidays, and good news alike. For your own birthday, the verb is cumplir años: hoy cumplo 25 años means "I turn 25 today" — tengo 25 años just states your age. When the glasses come up it's ¡salud! everywhere, ¡chin chin! in Argentina, and in Mexico the birthday song isn't Happy Birthday at all — it's Las Mañanitas. In the Fiesta lessons there are no flashcards: you learn the words by celebrating out loud, in a real conversation.
Below: the phrases lesson by lesson, how each country actually names its parties and cakes, the traps like fiesta vs día festivo — and a way to rehearse the toast out loud.
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Regional Spanish
Textbooks teach one word. Locals use several — pick your region's and stay consistent.
| English | Mexico | Argentina | Spain |
|---|---|---|---|
| cake | el pastel | la torta | la tarta |
| a big party | el reventón | la joda | la juerga |
| cheers! (toast) | ¡salud! | ¡chin chin! | ¡salud, dinero y amor! |
Watch out
The part no drill site can do
Olivia
Your vocabulary teacher for this pack
No flashcards, no matching games. In the Fiesta lessons you talk, and Olivia brings the party to you: you're planning a birthday — what do you bring, who sends la invitación, who hangs los globos? She asks how your family celebrates la Navidad and el Año Nuevo, and you tell her your real traditions. Then the glasses go up and it's your brindis: ¡salud! — a wish, said out loud, exactly the way you'd say it at a table full of friends.
Blank mid-sentence and nothing bad happens — she waits. That's the practice, without unnecessary judgement.
Finish the 5 lessons and Fiesta is yours — earned, not given.
First 10 lessons free · 10-minute spoken lessons · your AI coaching team remembers you
Quick answers
Feliz cumpleaños is specifically "happy birthday". Felicidades is the all-purpose congratulations — it works for birthdays, weddings, holidays, any achievement. In Colombia and Venezuela you'll also hear the warm ¡felicidades en tu día!
Hoy cumplo 25 años — the verb cumplir años means to turn an age. Tengo 25 años only says how old you are; on the day itself, it's cumplo.
¡Salud! — literally "health" — is the standard everywhere. Argentines clink with ¡chin chin!, Spain has the full classic ¡salud, dinero y amor!, and Mexico's crowd-pleaser runs arriba, abajo, al centro y pa' dentro.
Mexico's traditional birthday song — sung before the English Happy Birthday, or instead of it, usually right before the birthday person blows out the candles: apaga las velitas, pide un deseo.
All three, by region: el pastel in Mexico, la torta in Argentina, la tarta in Spain. And a public holiday isn't a fiesta — that's a party you attend; the official day off is un día festivo.
