From Twitter:
A. What’s your birth date?
B. Why do you say it that way?
A. Huh?
B. You talk like a government clerk.
A. How should I say it?
B. Good. Say: ”when’s your birthday?”
A. OK, but I thought…
B. Forget what you thought; just say: _
* When’s your birthday
* What’s your birth date
The Answer is as it was instructed by speaker B: When’s your birthday?
The Explanation is: There is no reason for it except that we speak the way we do. To invent a reason (for people who think language is all rules), let’s pretend one is the casual way and one is the formal way (but the real reason is, we just talk that way).
Advice: If you want to learn a language
and use the language naturally,
you have to take a break from the grammar
and use the language, see the language (read!)
and watch native, live productions of the language
(or meet and talk to NATIVE SPEAKERS sincerely, first (because you actually have something in common and want to be friends–not because you need English lessons),
and stop saying ”I’m shy”;
shyness helps no one and is not honorable or helpful–it’s just a social dysfunction);
Use the real language in real situations
in real life with real people.
That is how you properly learn how real people use
the real language
in real places.
