congratulate

English

Alternative forms

• gratulate (archaic)

Etymology

First attested in 1548; borrowed from Latin congrātulātus, the perfect active participle of Latin grātulor (“to wish joice, rejoice (with); to congratulate”) (see -ate (verb-forming suffix)), from con- +‎ grātulor, from grātus (“grateful, pleasing, agreeable, beloved”) + -or. By surface analysis, con- +‎ gratulate.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /kənˈɡɹæt͡ʃ.ʊˌleɪt/, /-t͡ʃ.ə-/

  • Audio (UK):

    (file)

  • Audio (US):

    (file)

• (US, sometimes) IPA^(key): /kənˈɡɹæd͡ʒ.ʊˌleɪt/, /-d͡ʒ.ə-/

Verb

congratulate (third-person singular simple present congratulates, present participle congratulating, simple past and past participle congratulated)

1. To express one’s sympathetic pleasure or joy to the person(s) it is felt for; to felicitate.

   Remind me to congratulate Dave and Lisa on their wedding.

   We must congratulate Dave and Lisa on getting married.

   • 2025 May 7, Ben Morse, “‘Proud of you’: Cristiano Ronaldo’s eldest son earns first call-up for Portugal Under-15 national team”, in CNN‎^[1]:

     Ronaldo Sr., who is the record goalscorer in men’s international soccer with 136 goals for Portugal, congratulated his son on his Instagram Stories by posting a picture of his name on the squad list, saying: “Proud of you, son!”

2. (reflexive) To consider oneself fortunate in some matter.

   I congratulated myself on the success of my plan.

Derived terms

• congratulable
• congratulant
• congratulating
• congratulative
• congratulator
• congratulatory
• recongratulate
• self-congratulate
• uncongratulated
• uncongratulating

Related terms

• congratulation
• congratulations

Translations

to express one’s sympathetic pleasure or joy to the person(s) it is felt for

• Arabic: هَنَّأَ (hannaʔa), يُهَنِّئُ (yuhanniʔu) (non-past)
• Armenian: շնորհավորել (hy) (šnorhavorel)
• Azerbaijani: təbrik etmək
• Belarusian: віншава́ць impf (vinšavácʹ), павіншава́ць pf (pavinšavácʹ)
• Bulgarian: поздравя́вам (bg) impf (pozdravjávam), честитя́ (bg) pf (čestitjá)
• Catalan: felicitar (ca)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 祝賀 / 祝贺 (zh) (zhùhè), 道喜 (zh) (dàoxǐ)

• Chukchi: анъякаԓек (anʺjakaḷek)
• Cornish: keslowenhe
• Czech: blahopřát (cs) impf, gratulovat impf
• Danish: gratulere
• Dutch: feliciteren (nl), gelukwensen (nl)
• Esperanto: gratuli (eo)
• Estonian: õnnitlema
• Finnish: onnitella (fi), toivottaa onnea
• French: féliciter (fr)
• Galician: folgarse (gl), congratular (gl)
• Georgian: მილოცვა (milocva)
• German: gratulieren (de), beglückwünschen (de)
• Greek: συγχαίρω (el) (synchaíro)
• Hebrew: ברך (he) (berákh), פִרְגֵּן (firgén) (colloquial)
• Hindi: बधाई देना (badhāī denā)
• Hungarian: gratulál (hu)
• Ido: gratular (io)
• Japanese: 祝う (ja) (いわう, iwau)
• Kazakh: құттықтау (qūttyqtau)
• Khmer: សរសើរ (km) (sɑɑ saə), សូមជូនពរ (soom cuun pɔɔ)
• Korean: 축하하다 (ko) (chukhahada)
• Kyrgyz: куттуктоо (ky) (kuttuktoo)
• Latin: grātulor, congrātulor
• Latvian: apsveikt
• Lithuanian: sveikinti, pasveikinti
• Macedonian: че́сти impf (čésti)
• Malay: tahniah
• Manx: cogherjaghey
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: gratulere (no)

• Ottoman Turkish: تبریك ایتمك (tebrik etmek)
• Persian: تبریک گفتن (tabrik goftan)
• Polish: gratulować (pl) impf, pogratulować (pl) pf, winszować (pl) impf, powinszować pf (dated)
• Portuguese: parabenizar (pt), congratular (pt)
• Romanian: ferici (ro), ura (ro), felicita (ro)
• Russian: поздравля́ть (ru) impf (pozdravljátʹ), поздра́вить (ru) pf (pozdrávitʹ)
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: честитати impf or pf

  Roman: čestitati (sh) impf or pf

• Slovak: blahoželať impf, gratulovať impf
• Slovene: čestitati impf
• Spanish: felicitar (es), congratular (es)
• Swedish: gratulera (sv), lyckönska, gratta (sv)
• Tagalog: balangawan, magbalangaw
• Tajik: табрик кардан (tabrik kardan), муборакбод гуфтан (muborakbod guftan), табрик гуфтан (tabrik guftan)
• Telugu: అబినందించు (abinandiñcu)
• Thai: ฉลอง (th) (chà-lŏng)
• Turkish: tebrik etmek (tr), kutlamak (tr)
• Turkmen: gutlamak
• Ukrainian: поздоровля́ти impf (pozdorovljáty), поздоро́вити pf (pozdoróvyty), віншува́ти impf (vinšuváty), повіншува́ти pf (povinšuváty)
• Uzbek: tabriklamoq (uz)
• Vietnamese: chúc mừng (vi)

Italian

Etymology 1

Verb

congratulate

1. inflection of congratulare:
   1. second-person plural present indicative
   2. second-person plural imperative

Etymology 2

Participle

congratulate f pl

1. feminine plural of congratulato

Latin

Participle

congrātulāte

1. vocative masculine singular of congrātulātus

Spanish

Verb

congratulate

1. second-person singular voseo imperative of congratular combined with te