Congratulations in Spanish: 5 Ways to Express Good Wishes + Audio
- ¡Felicidades! (Congratulations!)
- ¡Feliz cumpleaños! (Happy Birthday!)
- ¡Ya estás viejo! (You’re getting old!)
Wait! What?! How many ways are there to say congratulations in Spanish?!
Today, I will be teaching you 5 different ways to congratulate someone and, of course, the names of special occasions on which you should congratulate someone in Spanish!
Click on any of these terms to learn more about them!
| Spanish | English |
|---|---|
| ¡Felicidades! | Congratulations! |
| ¡Feliz cumpleaños! | Happy birthday! |
| ¡Feliz aniversario! | Happy anniversary! |
| ¡Feliz dĂa! | Happy … Day! |
| ¡Felices fiestas! | Happy holidays! |
1. ¡Felicidades! (Congratulations!)
This one is a life-saver, as you can use it to say “congratulations” for anything.
- ¡Felicidades!
| Spanish | English |
|---|---|
| I’m getting married! >> ¡Felicidades! | |
| Today is my birthday! >> ¡Felicidades! | |
| My parents have their 30th wedding anniversary! >> ¡Felicidades! |
Now, let’s be more specific…
2. ¡Feliz cumpleaños! (Happy Birthday!)
Don’t forget that si estás en la fiesta de cumpleaños de un mexicano (if you are at a Mexican birthday party), you must sing Las Mañanitas, not the Happy Birthday song.
And of course, after partir el pastel (cutting the cake), abrazas al festejado (you hug the birthday person) and say:
- ¡Feliz cumpleaños! (Happy Birthday!)
It is okay to joke about the birthday person. Say, for example, “¡Ya estás viejo / vieja!” (You are already old!).
3. ¡Feliz aniversario! (Happy Anniversary!)
We don’t use this for a birthday, but only cuando quieres conmemorar ese dĂa especial (when you want to commemorate that special day).
Por ejemplo (for example), tu aniversario de bodas (your wedding anniversary). Then, you might want to say:
- ¡Feliz aniversario! (Happy Anniversary!)
And I truly like the following phrase because it may be used on many occasions…
4. ¡Feliz dĂa! (Happy … Day!)
Feel free to add whatever celebration you want in here! Let’s see some examples:
| Spanish | English |
|---|---|
| Happy Mother’s Day! | |
| Happy Father’s Day! | |
| Happy Valentine’s Day! | |
| Happy Independence Day! | |
| Happy April’s fool! —Mexicans actually celebrate this day on December 28, not in April! |
For any of these special occasions, besides congratulating someone you may want to continue a conversation using chunks like these:
| Spanish | English |
|---|---|
| I wish you an excellent day! | |
| I wish you all the best! | |
| Congrats! | |
| Congratulations! | |
| A thousand congrats! | |
| Lots of congrats! |
CHUNK ALERT!
Muchas felicidades is a chunk that will never change. You’ll never say muchos felicidades or so. You don’t even have to know the gender of felicidades. You learn the whole chunk by heart, and you will use it yourself correctly.
If you’d like to know more about learning Spanish through chunks, check out our free Spanish chunking training on our website, where we demonstrate it in detail!
Other occasions to say congratulations in Spanish
| Spanish Expression | Meaning and Occasion |
|---|---|
| (Congratulations on the birth of your son or daughter!) – The birth of a child | |
| (Congratulations, graduate!) – Graduation Day from school or university | |
| (Congratulations to the bride and groom!) – A wedding | |
| (Congratulations to the father of the bride!) – A wedding | |
| (Congratulations on your new job!) – A new job |
Let’s end this lesson with the chunks we use to congratulate on Christmas and New Year’s Eve…
5. ¡Felices fiestas! (Happy Holidays!)
This is the equivalent of “Happy Holidays!”, but if you really want to be specific, just like the song, you might say:
- ¡Feliz Navidad! (the equivalent of Merry or, in this case, Happy Christmas!)
To wish a Happy New Year we say:
- “¡Feliz Año Nuevo!”
Mis amigos, do you have other special occasions that you wish to know how to congratulate someone in Spanish? Let me know by leaving me a comment below!
And again, if you want to learn more about chunks and how the chunking method works, check out the Free Spanish training on our website to help you speak Spanish fluently without cramming words and grammar lists.
✔️ Cheat Sheet with 54 essential Spanish Chunks you’ll hear and use yourself in ANY Spanish conversation (and example sentences). Taken from our YouTube Teacher’s most popular videos!
✔️ 2 Bonus Cheat Sheets with Travel Chunks and Dating/Relationship Chunks
✔️ A Spanish Chunking Tutorial showing you the 1 technique that’ll help you make 100% of the Spanish from our videos roll off the tongue in just 5 minutes a day (you’re probably only using 50% of our lessons’ potential right now…)
