6 Supportive Ways to Say Congratulations in Spanish

There are always reasons to celebrate. Whether it’s a birthday, a new job, or a graduation, we all love to celebrate and, of course, rejoice in the achievements and fulfilled dreams of the people around us. So… How do you say “congratulations” in Spanish?

You might be already familiar with words like felicidades or felicitaciones, but do they mean the same thing? And what about enhorabuena? Next, we will teach you how to congratulate a person in Spanish. 

Read next: 100 Must-Know Basic Spanish Words For Beginners (with Audio)

Congratulations in Spanish at a Glance

Common Ways to Say Congratulations in Spanish

Felicidades

Felicidades is a very common interjection in Spanish, and while it is literally the plural form of felicidad (“happiness”), it means “congratulations”. In general, felicidades is used to congratulate someone on an event that takes place in their life, such as a wedding, an anniversary, or even Christmas. For instance:

However, you can also use felicidades to congratulate someone on an achievement. Thus, it is common to say felicidades to someone if they graduate or get a new job, for example.

Felicitaciones

If you want to know how to say congratulations in Spanish, you should know that felicitaciones is one of the most common words to do it. It is specifically used to recognize someone for the good results of an action.

This is the main difference between felicidades and felicitaciones. While you can use the first option in most contexts, felicitaciones is normally used in contexts where you want to congratulate someone on an achievement, after putting in hard work. Let’s see an example:

Te felicito

Te felicito is a variation of felicitaciones and means, literally, “I congratulate you”. Here are a couple ways you might use it.

Enhorabuena

Enhorabuena is another way to say congrats in Spanish, and it is a funny word. We can divide it into three parts: en hora buena, which means “in good time”. One thing to note is that enhorabuena is the most widespread way of saying “congratulations” in Spain, although in Latin America it is not commonly heard.

So if you are in Madrid and you meet an old friend on the street, you can say Enhorabuena por tu nuevo coche (“Congratulations on your new car”), but if you are in Buenos Aires, the best thing is to use the word felicitaciones.

Me alegro por ti

Me alegro por ti means “I’m glad for you” or “I’m happy for you”, and its use in Spanish is similar to that of English. You can use this expression in informal contexts, such as when a friend tells you some news that makes them happy.

But keep in mind that ti is the pronoun of the second person singular. If you are addressing more people, the correct thing to do is to use the pronoun ustedes. For example, if a couple who are friends of yours tells you that they are getting married soon, you would alter this phrase slightly and use ustedes instead of ti:

¡Salud!

Salud means, literally, “health”, but it can be used in a situation to congratulate someone especially when you have a glass of champagne in your hand. In this context, it means “cheers”. Salud is normally used in Spanish when toasting someone to celebrate an event or achievement. A variant of salud, widely extended in Argentina and Spain, is ¡chín-chín!

Birthday Congratulations in Spanish

When we are invited to a birthday, wedding, or any special event, you need to know exactly how to express your best wishes to the hosts. Let’s take a look at the best ways to use congratulations in Spanish for special events.

Classic Happy Birthday in Spanish: Feliz Cumpleaños

The most common way to congratulate someone on their birthday is to say feliz cumpleaños , which literally means “happy birthday”. Note that, although the word cumpleaños ends with an “S”, the word is still singular. Don’t say felices cumpleaños but feliz cumpleaños.

Other Ways to Say Happy Birthday in Spanish

Other phrases are ¡Que cumplas muchos más! which means “May you have many more years”, or Que tengas un gran día which means “Have a great day”.

You can also use the short version of feliz cumpleaños, which is feliz cumple Yes, Spanish-speakers tend to shorten words a lot, such as finde instead of fin de semana (“weekend”). So… what about going to a cumple party this finde?

How to Sing the Happy Birthday in Spanish

Interestingly, in most parts of the world, Happy Birthday is sung to the same tune, and the words follow the same pattern. However, in Spanish things are a little complicated. Although the melody is the same in most Spanish-speaking countries, the lyrics change slightly.

For example, in Spain the song begins with Cumpleaños feliz… but in Argentina it starts as Que los cumplas feliz… and in Peru as Feliz cumpleaños a ti…

Anniversary Congratulations in Spanish

Do you have a boyfriend or girlfriend who speaks Spanish? Hopefully, you’ll get to wish them Happy Anniversary one day. Happy Anniversary in Spanish is feliz aniversario . You can also use the expression Felices x años de casados which means “Happy x year anniversary” where x is the number of years you’ve been together.

Work Congratulations in Spanish

Sometimes we want to congratulate people on their work achievements, especially if they have worked really hard to attain their new positions. Here are some phrases you can use to celebrate their accomplishments.

Spanish	English
¡Felicitaciones por tu nuevo trabajo!	Congrats on your new job!
¡Felicitacions por tu nuevo empleo!	Congrats on your new job!
¡Felicitaciones por tu ascenso!	Congratulations on your promotion!
¡Felicitaciones por tu nuevo puesto!	Congratulations on your new position!

If you want to recognize someone’s achievement for their great performance, you can say Buen trabajo (“Good job!”) or Gran trabajo (“Great job!”). 

Read next: 3 Most Common Ways of Saying Good in Spanish

Holiday Congratulations in Spanish

We love the holidays because they are a great time to get together with friends and family and, of course, congratulate them. Next, we will see some of the most common phrases to congratulate people on holidays or special dates.

Spanish	English
Feliz Nochebuena	Merry Christmas Eve
Feliz Navidad	Merry Christmas
Felices fiestas	Happy Holidays
Feliz Año Nuevo	Happy New Year
Felices Pascuas	Happy Easter
Feliz Día del Padre	Happy Father’s Day
Feliz Día de la Madre	Happy Mother’s Day
Feliz Día de la Independencia	Happy Independence Day

Conclusion

Felicitaciones on reaching the end of this article! Today, we have learned some of the most common phrases used in Spanish to congratulate people. Expressing our good wishes to people is great, especially when they have worked hard to fulfill their dreams and goals!

There are many ways to congratulate someone, such as saying felicitaciones, felicidades, te felicito, or enhorabuena. Now, it’s time to put these phrases into practice with the people around you!