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[00:00.00]Recently, our readers and listeners wrote many lovely messages about their birthdays.

[00:08.61]We have been reading all of them.

[00:12.61]Most messages are happy.

[00:15.40]You wrote about gifts you received, the people who celebrated with you, or where and how you celebrated.

[00:25.07]Some messages seemed sad. Some of you do not get to celebrate your birthdays.

[00:32.36]Other messages were a mix of sad and happy.

[00:37.22]In this week's Everyday Grammar, we are looking at Farhana's message about her birthday. She wrote:

[00:47.06]My birthday was on last 23 march.

[00:51.98]This was my 27th birthday.

[00:55.48]In my birthday no one wished me except my younger sister.

[01:00.63]And actually there was no devise for this day.

[01:04.68]I spent my whole day as like it is a normal day.

[01:10.32]Sometimes i felt sad and sometimes i wasn't.

[01:15.47]Let us start at the beginning. Farhana writes:

[01:20.42]My birthday was on last 23 march.

[01:24.51]We suggest changing this sentence to the present tense to say when your birthday is.

[01:32.66]My birthday is March 23.

[01:36.32]In American English, the usual order for dates is month, day, year.

[01:44.12]So instead of "23 March," Americans usually say "March 23."

[01:52.43]You used the past tense in this sentence:

[01:56.94]This was my 27th birthday.

[02:00.65]Another way we can say how old we are, is to use the past tense of the verb "turn."

[02:09.54]I turned 27 this year.

[02:12.50]Here, "turn" means to reach or pass into a new age.

[02:19.60]Next Farhana wrote this:

[02:22.78]In my birthday no one wished me except my younger sister.

[02:28.40]We can change the word order of this sentence to make it clearer.

[02:34.55]No one wished me happy birthday, except my younger sister.

[02:40.31]Instead of a prepositional phrase, "In my birthday," we can just start the sentence with "No one."

[02:49.57]"No one" is an indefinite pronoun meaning "no person." You could also use the pronoun "nobody."

[02:59.48]Onto the next sentence:

[03:02.02]And actually there was no devise for this day.

[03:07.30]"To devise" is a verb meaning to plan or think up something.

[03:13.84]You were close! But in this sentence we need a noun.

[03:19.65]And we find it in the definition of devise: plan.

[03:24.73]Actually, there was no plan for the day.

[03:30.17]If you wanted to use the word devise, however, you could! It would come right after "plan" in the sentence.

[03:40.11]Actually, there was no plan devised for the day.

[03:45.52]Farhana's next sentence is:

[03:49.05]I spent my whole day as like it is a normal day.

[03:53.76]We should make a few changes to this sentence.

[03:58.40]"As" and "like" are both used to make comparisons between nouns.

[04:05.29]"As" is an adverb, and "like" is a preposition.

[04:10.25]We only need one of these to make the comparison.

[04:14.38]We can say:

[04:16.92]I spent my whole day like it was a normal day.

[04:22.28]Let us look now at Farhana's last sentence:

[04:28.05]Sometimes i felt sad and sometimes i wasn't.

[04:33.43]We suggest changing this sentence to:

[04:38.20]Sometimes I felt sad, but other times I didn't.

[04:43.20]Now the two parts of the sentence agree in verb use.

[04:48.07]Also, We always capitalize the pronoun "I" in sentences.

[04:54.95]We used the conjunction "but" with "other times" only to create more contrast.

[05:03.08]It is also correct to write:

[05:06.57]Sometimes I felt sad and sometimes I didn't.

[05:11.18]Now, let's hear the revised message about Farhana's birthday:

[05:18.06]My birthday is March 23. I turned 27 this year.

[05:24.45]No one wished me happy birthday except my younger sister.

[05:30.67]Actually, there was no plan for the day.

[05:35.56]I spent my whole day like it was a normal day.

[05:40.53]Sometimes I felt sad, but other times, I didn't.

[05:46.14]Thank you Farhana for your message.

[05:49.44]We would like to wish you a happy birthday, early, for next year.

[05:55.23]I'm Caty Weaver.

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Words in This Story

indefinite - adj. unclear in meaning or detail

devise - v. to think of; to come up with, to invent or plan

capitalize - v. to begin (a word or name) with a capital letter

contrast - n. a difference between things or people that are being compared

character - n. a person who appears in a movie, book, film...

feedback - n. the transmission of corrective information