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"Happy New Year" vs. "Happy New Years" vs. "a Happy New Year"

Happy New Year!
I wish you all happiness, health, and wealth in 2021.

あけましておめでとうございます
2021年が明けて、皆さまいかがお過ごしでしょうか?
私たち家族は帰国へ向けて、ニューヨークからアンソニーの故郷・シアトルへ移動し、ホテル生活約1ヵ月半が経とうとしております。

近況は少し長くなってしまうため別途ブログを書きたいと思いますが、今回は、2021年最初の英語の疑問解決として、「Happy New Year」、「Happy New Years」、それから「a Happy New Year」の違いをアンソニーに聞いてみました。しばらくの間ずっと不明確だったので、少しすっきり。

日本語でも書こうと思ったのですが、疲れてしまったのでギブアップ...。英語のみとなりますが、私の英語力は高くないので誰でも読めると思います。少し難しいところは、アンソニーに添削してもらったときに修正された箇所。それでも最近は、修正箇所が減ってきて、70〜80%くらいは修正無しになってきたのですよ。。

それから、英語だけのブログを書くのに別途ブログを立ち上げようかなと考え中。noteは日本語だけという雰囲気だし、Mediumは課金しないと月3本までしか読めないようだし、やっぱりWordpressで作って自サイトにくっつけようかな...と思っていますが、もう少しリサーチしてみます。

それでは本年も、どうぞよろしくお願いいたします!

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"Happy New Year" vs. "Happy New Years" vs. "a Happy New Year"

Sometimes people use English in the wrong way if they are not natively fluent. I am also one of them.

The first conversation about English in 2021 with my husband is "What is the difference between 'Happy New Year', 'Happy New Years' and 'a Happy New Year'?"

Before we get to the main point, we should be careful to capitalize "N" and "Y" when we put "Happy" before "New Year".

I heard that we don't need to put "A" when we say "Happy New Year", so I have not put it when I greet everyone on New Year's Day.
I have been thinking "What is the difference between them?"
Then finally, I asked my husband about it (my husband is American).

I think we normally say "Happy New Year" when we greet someone on New Year's Day in English in Japan. However, we can also use "Happy New Years" and "a Happy New Year", depending on the context.

First, "Happy New Year" and "a Happy New Year" are singular, "Happy New Years" is plural.

Second, "Happy New Year" and "Happy New Years" are greeting messages.
We can say "Happy New Year" and "Happy New Years" alone as greetings.
However, we have to put some words before "a Happy New Year" if we use it.

For example:
Wishing you a Happy New Year with hope.
We hope that you all have a Happy New Year.

We should choose words with hope because we don't know if 2021 will be happy or not yet.

Then, I had a question if my husband says "Happy New Years" or "Happy New Year's", and I asked him like ‘You said "Happy New Years" last year, but is "Happy New Year's" correct?’
He explained that one is the possessive and one is the plural. He also said both are correct.
As we know "Happy New Year's" is possessive, however, I think "Happy New Years" makes us very confused.
People usually say "Happy New Years", but it means "Happy New Years Day", as "Happy Halloween (Day)" and "Happy Thanksgiving (Day)".

I searched these differences on Google and found some articles.
Some people never use "Happy New Years" as the following URL:

However, my husband does, when he is referring to the holiday (New Years Eve or New Years Day, whichever is applicable).
I think this is one of the reasons that English learners are confused sometimes.

In the end, my husband says that whether something is correct or not relies on colloquial differences that may be hard to explain or interpret. Nothing is wrong if a native speaker uses it, it is just an evolution of the language.

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