It's my birthday! Without further date specification.

[Xuebao]

Hi guys, first but not last time I'm here I guess.

Is it possible to say -it's my birthday- without further time/date specification, as e.g. answer to -what's going on tommorow-...in chinese? Or do I always have to say something like 今天/明天/星期天 before 是我的生日?

谢谢

[fanglu]

it's my birthday

What does the 'it's' mean here?

English uses 'it's' a lot (eg It's cold today), whereas Chinese does not. I don't think there is any way of translating this 'it's' without replacing the 'it' with another word (eg The weather's cold today).

[count_zero]

The "it's" here means nothing, without context.

So the answer is 我的生日.

Though that assumes this is kind of a trick question.

[tooironic]

it's my birthday = 是我的生日

it's my birthday (today) = 今天是我的生日

This is an example of a dummy subject in English. It has no real meaning here, it's just a compulsory part of a grammatically complete sentence in English. Chinese does not have such a thing or structure.

[count_zero]

> This is an example of a dummy subject in English.

I'm not sure that's right. In "It's raining", "it's" is clearly a dummy pronoun. It doesn't refer to anything. However, in this example:

A: What's tomorrow?

B: It's my birthday!

The "it's" is refers to tomorrow and so is functioning like a normal pronoun. If you get up in the morning and say "It's my birthday" I would say that "it's" refers to "today".

I could be wrong.

[eshton]

I have to agree with fanglu，if I heard you say 是我的生日 without specifying which day I would say 什么天？

[daofeishi]

if I heard you say 是我的生日 without specifying which day I would say 什么天？

You shouldn't, because that would be ungrammatical

What time = 什么时间 or 什么时候, depending on context.

What day = 星期几 or 哪（一）天, depending on context.

是我的生日(了) is, as far as I can tell, perfectly grammatical, but would usually be accompanied by another clause.

"什么天” does, by the way, show up as a translation of "what day". [edit: or maybe not, read Skylee's comment] Not in the sense of "what date/day of the week", but in the sense of "what kind of day is it/what's special about that day"

甲：明天要记得打扮漂漂亮亮的哦

乙：啊？明天是什么天呀？

[eshton]

Thank you for correcting my grammar daofeishi.

[skylee]

"什么天” does, by the way, show up as a translation of "what day". Not in the sense of "what date/day of the week", but in the sense of "what kind of day is it/what's special about that day"

甲：明天要记得打扮漂漂亮亮的哦

乙：啊？明天是什么天呀？

Do people really find this acceptable? I don't, and I don't think I have heard/read things like this. 甚麼日子 is what I would use.

[tooironic]

@count_zero Actually the definition of "dummy subject" is a controversial topic; some grammarians claim that "it's" in "it's raining" refers to the sky (!).

In the example you gave though I can see how you'd think that "it" is functioning as a normal pronoun.

[daofeishi]

Do people really find this acceptable? I don't, and I don't think I have heard/read things like this. 甚麼日子 is what I would use.

I recall having heard it, and having googled the phrase there seems to be several examples of it used that way. You are a native speaker, so you are the authority on what sounds natural. If you think it is unacceptable, the usage is probably nonstandard.