Hippo birdie two ewe
- idiom
- Informal
:
feliz cumpleaños
- At the birthday party, everyone cheered and sang Hippo birdie two ewe to celebrate her special day.
Examples
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As soon as she walked in, her friends shouted Hippo birdie two ewe to make her laugh.
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Instead of the usual song, we sang Hippo birdie two ewe at the party.
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We made a funny card that said Hippo birdie two ewe on the front.
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I want to wish you a Hippo birdie two ewe!
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Everyone sang Hippo birdie two ewe at the party.
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To make the birthday celebration unique, we decided to say Hippo birdie two ewe instead of the usual greeting.
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For his birthday, I wrote in the card, Hippo birdie two ewe, to add a humorous touch.
Synonyms
1
5.1
A wish that someone will enjoy many happy birthdays
Surface Forms
Morphology
This phrase is a phonetic pun that maps onto 'Happy birthday to you' through sound substitutions (hippo/birdie/two/ewe) rather than compositional meaning; the literal meanings of 'hippo', 'birdie', 'two', and 'ewe' do not indicate a birthday greeting. Understanding it requires recognition of the target phrase and the joke, so a B1 learner who only knows the constituent words would not be able to derive the intended meaning.
Etymology
Hippo birdie two ewe is a playful joke that sounds like the birthday line 'Happy Birthday to you'. It uses animal words like Hippo, birdie, and ewe, which means 'a female sheep', to make people laugh and wish someone 'Happy Birthday to you'.