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The French believe in “la belle vie”, the beautiful life. Part of their dedication to enjoying the beautiful or good life is to make sure that they recognize the good things around them – including the good things that happen to them and others.
One key to living a beautiful life is being able to express genuine happiness for the good fortune of others. You need to know how to acknowledge other’s accomplishments and wish them all the best.
The most basic way to express happiness for someone’s accomplishments is to know how to say a sincere “congratulations”. In this post, we’re going to cover some of the many different ways that French speakers say “congratulations”.
Three Main Ways You Can Say “Congratulations” In French
As with most world languages, several French words and phrases are used to say “congratulations”. The most basic way to congratulate a French speaker, however, centers around the word “félicitations”. Let’s take a closer look at the three main ways that you can say “congratulations” in French.
1. Félicitations
Meaning: Congratulations
If you were to use a translation app to ask “how do you say congratulations in French”, the answer you’re likely to get is this word. It is the most basic and common way to say congratulations in French.
2. Félicitations pour
Meaning: Congratulations on
It is perfectly acceptable to just say “Félicitations!” if you want to congratulate someone, but if you want to be more specific, you can say “Félicitations pour” then add the event that you are congratulating them for.
Here are a few examples:
French: Félicitations pour ton mariage!
English: Congratulations on your marriage!
French: Félicitations pour ton avancement!
English: Congratulations on the promotion!
French: Félicitations pour l’achat de ta maison!
English: Congratulations on buying a house!
French: Félicitations pour la naissance de votre fille!
English: Congratulations on the birth of your daughter!
French: Félicitations pour la naissance de votre petit garçon!
English: Congratulations on the birth of your son!
French: Félicitations pour ton nouvel employ!
English: Congratulations on your new job!
3. Félicitations pour avoir/être
Meaning: Congratulations on
If you want to congratulate someone on an action, you need to add either “avoir” or “être” then add the action that you are congratulating them on.
If the verb or the action that you are congratulating them on is transitive, you use avoir. If it is intransitive, you use être. A transitive verb has an action, while an intransitive verb has an object.
Here are a couple of examples:
French: Félicitations pour être arrivé sain et sauf.
English: Congratulations on arriving safely!
French: Félicitations pour avoir gagné le match
English: Congratulations on winning the game!
Other Phrases French-speakers Use When They Want To Say Congratulations
Now that we’ve explained the three basic ways to say “congratulations” in French, let us look at a few other ways that French speakers express their good wishes and admiration for someone and their accomplishments.
The following are other ways to say “congratulations” in French. Some of these words and phrases can be used in general situations, but we’ve also included a few phrases that are used for specific life events or accomplishments.
1. Mes sincères felicitations
Meaning: My sincere congratulations
2. Nos sincères felicitations
Meaning: Our sincere congratulations
3. Mes vives felicitations
Meaning: My enthusiastic congratulations
4. Nos vives felicitations
Meaning: Our wholehearted congratulations
5. Je te félicite
Meaning: I congratulate you (informal)
6. Je vous félicite
Meaning: I congratulate you (formal); I congratulate you (more than one person)
7. Bien joué
Meaning: Well played or nicely done
8. Bon travail
Meaning: Good work
9. Bravo
Meaning: Congratulations (French slang, informal).
10. Chapeau
Meaning: Congratulations or “Hats off” (French expression)
11. Chapeau bas
Meaning: Hats off
12.. Je suis heureux/euse pour toi/vous
Meaning: I’m happy for you
13. Je suis fier/fière de toi/vous
Meaning: I’m proud of you
14. On va fêter ça!
Meaning: Let’s celebrate
15. Tu l’as bien mérité!/Vous l’avez bien mérité
Meaning: You earned it.
16. Tous mes compliments
Meaning: All my congratulations or sincere congratulations
17. Tous nous compliments
Meaning: All our congratulations or sincere congratulations
18. Tous mes voeux
Meaning: All my wishes (mostly used during weddings)
19. Tous nos voeux
Meaning; All our wishes (mostly used for just married couples)
20. Tous mes meilleurs vœux de santé et de bonheu
Meaning: All my best wishes for your health and happiness.
21. Je t’adresse mes felicitations
Meaning: I extend my congratulations to you
22. Je lui fais mes felicitations
Meaning: I congratulate you
23. Bonne réuissite
Meaning: Great success
24. Addressez tous mes compliments à
Meaning: Give my compliments to (name)
25. Je veux vous féliciter
Meaning: I want to congratulate you.
26. Je tiens à vous féliciter pour
Meaning: I must congratulate you for
27. Bonne chance!
Meaning: Good luck
28. Bon courage
Meaning: I wish you well
29. Tous mes voeux vous accompagnent
Meaning: I wish you the best
30. Je te souhaite plein de bonheur en cette journée spéciale.
Meaning: Wishing you every happiness on your special day (often used on someone’s birthday)
31. Joyeux anniversaire!
Meaning: Happy anniversary
32. Nous voudrions te féliciter pour
Meaning: We would like to send you our congratulations on
33. Nous savions que tu pouvais le faire.
Meaning; We knew you could do it.
34. Félicitations pour la nouvelle arrivée dans votre famille !
Meaning: Congratulations on the new arrival in your family (used when a baby has been born)
35. Félicitations pour ton entrée à l'université
Meaning: Well done getting into university
36. Bien joué pour les examens.
Meaning: Well done on your exams.
37. Félicitations pour tes examens!
Meaning: Congratulations on passing your exams.
38. Félicitations pour ton diplôme!
Meaning: Congratulations on your graduation!
39. Félicitations pour tes fiançailles
Meaning: Congratulations on your engagement.
40. J'espère que vous serez très heureux ensemble.
Meaning: I hope you’ll be very happy together.
41. Félicitations. Nous vous souhaitons à tous les deux tout le bonheur du monde.
Meaning: Congratulations. We wish both of you all the happiness in the world.
42. Félicitations et meilleurs vœux à vous deux pour votre mariage.
Meaning: Congratulations and best wishes to you both on your wedding day.
43. Félicitations pour vous être dit "oui" !
Meaning: Congratulations on saying yes/I do (informal way to congratulate newlyweds)
44. Félicitations pour avoir décroché ce poste
Meaning: Congratulations on getting the job.
45. Nous te souhaitons beaucoup de succès dans cette prochaine étape professionnelle.
Meaning: We wish you every success on your latest career move.
46. Tout le Meilleur
Meaning: All the best
47. Soyez chanceux!
Meaning: Be lucky
48. Je te souhaite bonne chance et tout le succès que tu mérite.
Meaning: I wish you the best of luck and every success.
49. Bien joué pour les examens et bonne chance pour le futur.
Meaning: Well done on your great exam results and all the best for the future
50. Félicitations pour tes examens et bonne chance dans ta future carrière professionnelle.
Meaning: Congratulations on your exam results. Wishing you all the best in your future career.
Conclusion
To be prepared to celebrate important life events and accomplishments, you need to know phrases and words that mean congratulations – and the appropriate times and places to use them.
To help you learn the different ways to say congratulations in French, we’ve compiled the list of words and phrases we’ve discussed here into a downloadable PDF file. You can take this list and study it at your own pace.
If you really want to know the proper times and places to use these different ways to say congratulations, however, we suggest you take this list and discuss it with an online native French-speaking tutor.
By going through this list of the ways to say congratulations in French with a tutor, they can correct your pronunciation and accent in real-time. They will also be able to give you some tips on when to use the different words and phrases we included here and might even be able to add a few more that we might have missed.
Félicitations! You are starting your French language learning journey on the right foot!
