English Vocabulary: When to Say “Congratulations!”
In English, congratulations is a form of praise when someone achieves something special or unusual, for example when someone:
- gets engaged
- gets married
- gets a job promotion
- gets a new job
- has a new baby
- passes an exam
- graduates from school
- wins an election
- wins a race or contest
Congratulations on winning the election!
Congratulations on your new baby!
Congratulations on on winning a gold medal!
Congratulations is often shortened to congrats in writing. English speakers don’t usually say congrats.
Since I started teaching English, I have been congratulated for everything! Often English learners say congratulations when they mean good job or well done!
When you want to tell someone that they have done well on a project, taught a class well, given a good speech, or generally done something well, you can say:
Good job on the report! I think the executives will like it.
That was a great class, teacher. Well done!
Excellent speech! The audience really enjoyed it.
When all the players shake hands at the end of a sports game, they say “good game” to each other. When a sports team wins a tournament, you can also say “Congratulations!” to the team.
🙂 Good advice, thanks
Dear Teacher Melanie,
This blog post is really helpful to me! Great work!
(P/S: Am I right replacing ‘job’ with ‘work’? Thank you!)
Hi, Ha!
Yes, you are absolutely correct! “Great work” is the appropriate thing to say. Thank you!
= )
Hello teacher, i since i found this amazing blog, i always waiting for new information about English language; you really have done great job. Thank you very much. May ALLAH reward you
good words for non native speakers
Hi teacher Melanie! I really like your lessons, and i appreciate that. thank you very much for you helping us. Well done Melanie <3
Hi teacher Melanie!
I found this useful blog by chance and introduced it to my friends.
thanks for your helping.
Hi, Melanie
How are you?
Could one say “Congratulations on teacher’s day”?
Or does it sound awkward?
Hi, Childerico!
“Happy Teacher’s Day!” is best. You shouldn’t say ‘Congratulations’ because the teacher didn’t actually achieve anything on this day.
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Hello Teacher,
Thank you so much! You’ve showed me things that I couldn’t find from the books.
Great job teacher
Good Job/Well Done! This lesson is amazing. Congratulations! on being the best English Teacher.
Hello,
I think the question that I’m about to ask is mostly the matter of opinion than language, but I’m going to ask anyway:
A friend’s sister is getting engaged and he just let me know by email. And I don’t know and never met his sister. Should I say congratulations to him?
I’d really appreciate your help. 🙂
M.M.
Hi, M.M.,
Even native speakers struggle with this situation! I think the best thing to say is,
“Congratulations to your sister!”
or
“Congratulations to your sister & her fiance/boyfriend/future husband!”
= )
Thank you Melanie. That was very helpful.
I’m so glad I found your website. I added it to my bookmarks and I’m sure I’ll refer to it quite often. 🙂
Thank you teacher! This lesson helped me a lot!
Thanks for your helpful lesson, you have done the best teacher
Great tips!!!! Thanks a lot!
Hi Melanie!
Your blog has been very helpful for me. I really need the use of formal expressions for current conversation.
Thanks!
Good lesson .thanks
Thank you for this informative lesson. I think I used it inappropriately on social media. No one told me it was wrong but I decided to search on Google for appropriate usage. Thanks again for sharing.
I´m often stop by. Great site.
Mam, I always wanted lern english and speek fluently. now i still lerning English since four months. only on mobile internet , I have searched many websites of lern english but when I saw your lesson and blog then I understood some English English grammar is very hard to memorize for me when I start speek English practice that time I suddenly forget all grammar rules so I afraid that I am wrongly speaking and I was stop …