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Personally, I've used both versions. Nevertheless: Belated birthday is nonsense, since the anniversary is the anniversary, and cannot be postponed even if the celebrations are. Belated happy birthday, strictly, is also nonsense because the birthday has already gone and may or may not have been happy. Therefore I would suggest something along the lines of: Belated birthday wishes (as suggested in another answer) Hope you had a Happy Birthday. Sorry I missed it / Sorry I'm late. However, you find ' beloved ' more frequently used than 'loved' when you are using it as an adjective. So, to answer this, if you are using the word as an adjective, prefer which is more common and understandable - beloved . When I first read Romeo and Juliet in high school, I remember being intrigued by pairs of words such as, beloved /belovèd and learned/learnèd where there's an accent grave on the 'e' of the last The need for the definite article depends upon the contextual meaning . Late is nothing special and follows the same rules as any other word.
