How to Say Congratulations in French

Your French friend just texted you a photo of a ring, or an acceptance letter, or a diploma, and you have exactly one shot at the reply before it feels late. You type "Félicitations !" because that's the word everyone half-remembers from a French class years ago, hit send, and then wonder: was that even the right word for an engagement? Is there a different one for passing an exam versus landing a job? French, it turns out, has more than one way to say "congratulations," and picking the right one is one of those small details that makes your French sound lived-in rather than looked-up.

This matters more than it seems, because "congratulations" isn't one fixed phrase in French the way it functions in English — it shifts slightly depending on what exactly you're celebrating, how you're delivering it, and how warmly you want to say it. Get it close enough and a French speaker will understand you perfectly. Get it right and you'll sound like someone who's actually spent time around the language, not someone translating word for word from a phrasebook. Since congratulations come up constantly — birthdays, weddings, new jobs, exams, babies, promotions — this is genuinely high-frequency vocabulary worth having ready before you need it, not looked up in the moment.

The default word, and the one you can reach for in almost any situation, is félicitations (fay-lee-see-tah-syohn). It's plural in French even though "congratulations" and "congrats" both work as loose singular concepts in English — you'll never see "une félicitation" used this way, only the plural form, so don't drop the final s. On its own, "Félicitations !" works as a complete, simple response to almost any good news: a new job, an exam passed, an engagement, a graduation. If you want to sound warmer or more sincere, "Toutes mes félicitations" (toot may fay-lee-see-tah-syohn) — literally "all my congratulations" — is the phrase French speakers reach for on cards, in speeches, or when the news is a big deal rather than a small one, like a wedding or the birth of a child.

Félicitations isn't the only option, though, and knowing when to reach for something else is where this gets useful. Bravo (brah-VOH) is what you say for an achievement you actually witnessed or that involved visible effort — someone nails a presentation, finishes a race, plays a piece of music well, or pulls off something impressive in front of you. It's shorter, more immediate, and works alone as an exclamation the way it does in English, but it leans toward "well done" more than "congratulations" — you'd say bravo to a kid who just rode a bike without training wheels, but félicitations to a colleague who just got engaged. The two overlap in casual speech, and native speakers won't blink if you swap them, but the distinction is worth having: félicitations for news, bravo for a performance you watched happen.

For specific life events, French often adds a phrase rather than relying on félicitations alone. For an engagement, "Félicitations pour vos fiançailles" (fay-lee-see-tah-syohn poor voh fee-ahn-sigh) — congratulations on your engagement — uses fiançailles, always plural, for "engagement." For a wedding, it becomes "Félicitations pour votre mariage" (...poor voh-truh mah-ree-ahzh) or, more casually among friends, "Tous mes vœux de bonheur" (too may vuh duh boh-nuhr) — literally "all my wishes for happiness," a phrase you'll see often on wedding cards. For a new baby, French speakers say "Félicitations pour la naissance" (...poor lah nay-sahns) — congratulations on the birth — or simply "Félicitations aux heureux parents" (...oh zuh-ruh pah-rahn), congratulations to the happy parents. For an exam or diploma, "Félicitations pour ton diplôme" (...poor tohn dee-plohm) or, more informally, "Bien joué !" (byan zhoo-ay) — literally "well played," used the same way English speakers use "nice one" for a success that took real effort.

The grammar worth noticing here is how these phrases attach to their occasion: félicitations pour + [the thing being celebrated]. Pour (poor) means "for," and everything after it names the specific achievement — pour ton mariage, pour ton nouveau travail (your new job), pour ta réussite (your success). Swap ton/ta based on the gender of the noun that follows, not the gender of the person you're congratulating — ton nouveau travail (masculine noun, so ton) but ta promotion (feminine noun, so ta). This is the same possessive-adjective agreement rule that trips up beginners elsewhere in French: it tracks the word being possessed, never the owner.

A quick cultural note worth keeping in mind: in France, congratulations often come with physical warmth that can catch English speakers off guard — a hug, a kiss on each cheek (la bise), or a firm handshake, depending on how close you are to the person and the formality of the setting. Written congratulations, especially for weddings and births, are still commonly sent as an actual card (une carte de félicitations) rather than just a text, and it's considered a genuinely thoughtful gesture rather than an old-fashioned one — many French stationery shops keep a whole section just for these occasion cards.

Here's how this plays out in real conversation. A coworker mentions she just passed her driving exam: you'd say "Félicitations pour ton permis !" (congratulations on your license) or simply "Bravo, c'est mérité !" (well done, you earned it). A friend announces a new job over dinner: "Félicitations pour ton nouveau travail, ça va bien se passer" (congratulations on your new job, it's going to go well). At a wedding, when you greet the couple in the receiving line, "Félicitations, tous mes vœux de bonheur" covers both the news and the warmth in one line, and it's exactly the kind of set phrase that sounds natural precisely because you didn't build it from scratch.

Try these before checking the answers below. First, translate: "Congratulations on your engagement!" Second, fill in the blank with ton or ta: "Félicitations pour ___ nouvelle maison" (new house — la maison, feminine). Third, multiple choice: you just watched a friend land a difficult skateboard trick — do you say (a) félicitations, (b) bravo, or (c) both work equally well here? Fourth, translate: "All my congratulations on the birth of your daughter." Fifth, true or false: félicitations is grammatically singular in French, like "congratulation" would be in English.

Answer key: "Félicitations pour vos fiançailles !" (or tes fiançailles, informally). The blank is ta, because maison is feminine, so the possessive agrees with the noun, not the person. The answer is (b) bravo, since it's a witnessed, in-the-moment achievement — though (c) is a defensible real-world answer too, since many French speakers would say either. "Toutes mes félicitations pour la naissance de votre fille." False — félicitations is always plural in French, never used in a singular form.

Three things worth carrying forward: félicitations is your reliable default for almost any good news, but it's always plural, never singular; bravo is for achievements you witness in the moment, while félicitations covers news you're told about; and adding pour + the specific occasion (pour ton mariage, pour ta réussite) is what turns a generic congratulations into one that sounds specifically, warmly aimed at the person's actual news. Next time good news lands in French — a text, a wedding invitation, a friend's exam results — you'll have more than one word ready, and you'll know exactly which one fits. For more everyday phrases like this, browse Passage's Vocabulary section, or head to Grammar to see the same possessive-agreement rule (ton vs ta) at work across the rest of the language.