Reviewing Your Birthday Message

01Recently, our readers and listeners wrote many lovely messages about their birthdays.

02We have been reading all of them.

03Most messages are happy.

04You wrote about gifts you received, the people who celebrated with you, or where and how you celebrated.

05Some messages seemed sad.

06Some of you do not get to celebrate your birthdays.

07Other messages were a mix of sad and happy.

08In this week's Everyday Grammar, we are looking at Farhana's message about her birthday.

09She wrote, My birthday was on last 23 March.

10This was my 27th birthday.

11In my birthday, no one wished me except my younger sister.

12And actually, there was no device for this day.

13I spent my whole day as like it is a normal day.

14Sometimes I felt sad, and sometimes I wasn't.

15Let us start at the beginning.

16Farhana writes, My birthday was on last 23 March.

17We suggest changing this sentence to the present tense, to say when your birthday is.

18My birthday is March 23rd.

19In American English, the usual order for dates is month, day, year.

20So, instead of 23 March, Americans usually say March 23rd.

21You used the past tense in this sentence.

22This was my 27th birthday.

23Another way we can say how old we are is to use the past tense of the verb turn.

24I turned 27 this year.

25Here, turn means to reach or pass into a new age.

26Next, Farhana wrote this.

27In my birthday, no one wished me except my younger sister.

28We can change the word order of this sentence to make it clearer.

29No one wished me happy birthday except my younger sister.

30Instead of a prepositional phrase, in my birthday, we can just start the sentence with no one.

31No one is an indefinite pronoun, meaning no person.

32You could also use the pronoun nobody.

33On to the next sentence.

34Devise is a verb, meaning to plan or think up something.

35You were close.

36But in this sentence, we need a noun.

37And we find it in the definition of devise.

38Plan.

39Actually, there was no plan for the day.

40If you wanted to use the word devise however you could, it would come right after plan in the sentence.

41Actually, there was no plan devised for the day.

42Farhana's next sentence is, I spent my whole day as like it is a normal day.

43We should make a few changes to this sentence.

44As and like are both used to make comparisons between nouns.

45As is an adverb and like is a preposition.

46We only need one of these to make the comparison.

47We can say, I spent my whole day like it was a normal day.

48Let us look now at Farhana's last sentence.

49Sometimes I felt sad and sometimes I wasn't.

50We suggest changing this sentence to, Sometimes I felt sad, but other times I didn't.

51Now, the two parts of the sentence agree in verb use.

52Also, we always capitalize the pronoun I in sentences.

53We used the conjunction but with other times only to create more contrast.

54It is also correct to write, Sometimes I felt sad and sometimes I didn't.

55Now, let's hear the revised message about Farhana's birthday.

56My birthday is March 23rd.

57I turned 27 this year.

58No one wished me happy birthday, Except my younger sister.

59Actually, there was no plan for the day.

60I spent my whole day like it was a normal day.

61Sometimes I felt sad, but other times I didn't.

62Thank you, Farhana, for your message.

63We would like to wish you a happy birthday, early, for next year.

64I'm Katie Weaver.