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Cursive Alphabet

Happy Birthday in Cursive

Happy birthday gets written by hand more than almost any other phrase — on cards, on cakes, on the tag of a present — and it is a surprisingly good workout. Between its two words it has a capital H with its crossbar, a double p with straight descenders, two y loops, a b with its bridge, a tall h and a retraced d. Each version below is written on ruled lines with a note on the joins, and the practice sheet at the end fits them all on one page.

Happy Birthday in cursive

Written out, one by one

Happy Birthday in cursive

Happy Birthday

Capital H connects: its second stem ends in a tail that feeds the a. The two p's are straight retraces below the line; the y loops. Capital B does not connect — lift before the i.

Happy birthday in cursive

Happy birthday

The same phrase with a lowercase b, as it is usually written inside a sentence. b is a bridge letter, so the i after it starts from the midline.

Happy Birthday to you in cursive

Happy Birthday to you

Adds t-o and y-o-u. Cross the t after the word; the o before u is a bridge.

Have a wonderful birthday in cursive

Have a wonderful birthday

Capital H again; wonderful has a w (bridge) into o (bridge) — two midline joins in a row — and an f with loops above and below the line.

Many happy returns in cursive

Many happy returns

Capital M connects. returns ends with r-n-s: a shoulder, a hump and a short s, all at the midline.

Happy birthday practice sheet

Each line once as a model and once in grey to write over. On the sheet the letters are set side by side; join them with your pen as the notes above describe. Prints on one US Letter page.

More to write

Every letter

Questions

How do you write happy birthday in cursive?

Write the capital H — two stems with a level crossbar just above the midline — and let the second stem's tail flow into a-p-p-y: an oval, two straight descenders that each retrace up to form a bowl, and a y that loops below the line. Then the capital B (which does not connect), a lift, and i-r-t-h-d-a-y in one stroke, crossing the t at the end.

Is the B in Happy Birthday capitalised?

On a card, usually yes — Happy Birthday as a title. In a sentence it is lowercase: happy birthday. Both are written on this page; the difference in cursive is that capital B does not connect, while lowercase b is a bridge letter that joins the i from the midline.

What is the hardest part of writing happy birthday in cursive?

The double p. Each p drops a straight stem below the line and comes back up to draw its bowl, and doing it twice in a row at the same depth takes practice. Write pp on its own a few times before the whole word.