Sheena Dizon
Last updated:
21 Ways to Say Congratulations in Chinese Like a Supportive Native Speaker
Life is too short not to celebrate.
An engagement, landing a new job, acing your driver’s test, becoming a homeowner—it would be rude not to say congratulations when someone shares their good news with you!
In China, praising others is just a tiny portion of a larger cultural concept known as 关系 (guān xì), literally meaning “relationship.”
So in this post, you’ll learn 21 ways to say congratulations in Chinese and how to use them in various situations.
Contents
- 1. 祝贺(你)
- 2. 恭喜(你)
- 3. 恭贺(你)
- 4. 恭祝(你)
- 5. (我向你)致贺
- 6. (我向你)道喜
- 7. (我向你)道贺
- 8. (我向你)贺喜
- 9. 燕雀相贺
- 10. 祝你婚姻幸福！
- 11. 恭喜你顺利毕业！
- 12. 祝贺你找到新工作！
- 13. 恭祝促销成功！
- 14. 开张大吉！
- 15. 你真棒啊！
- 16. 太好了！
- 17. 非常好！
- 18. 我一直相信你
- 19. 我为你骄傲
- 20. 我早就知道你能行的
- 21. 我都替你高兴
- Non-verbal Ways to Say Congratulations
- The Cultural Significance of Commending Success in China
Download: This blog post is available as a convenient and portable PDF that you can take anywhere. Click here to get a copy. (Download)
1. 祝贺(你)
Pinyin: zhù hè nǐ
English: Congratulations (to you); I congratulate you
You can say 祝贺 on its own or add 你 meaning “you” at the end to say “congratulations (to you).”
2. 恭喜(你)
Pinyin: gōng xǐ nǐ
English: Congratulations (to you); I congratulate you; Greetings (to you)
3. 恭贺(你)
Pinyin: gōng hè nǐ
English: Congratulations (to you); I wish you well
4. 恭祝(你)
Pinyin: gōng zhù nǐ
English: Congratulations (to you); I wish you good luck and success
For congratulatory verbs like 恭贺 and 恭祝, you can tack on 你 at the end to say, “Congratulations (to you),” just as we did with the first two words.
5. (我向你)致贺
Pinyin: wǒ xiàng nǐ zhì hè
English: Congratulations (to you); I congratulate you
6. (我向你)道喜
Pinyin: wǒ xiàng nǐ dào xǐ
English: Congratulations (to you); I congratulate you
7. (我向你)道贺
Pinyin: wǒ xiàng nǐ dào hè
English: Congratulations (to you); I congratulate you
8. (我向你)贺喜
Pinyin: wǒ xiàng nǐ hè xǐ
English: Congratulations (to you); I congratulate you
For congratulatory verbs like 致贺, 道喜, 道贺 and 贺喜, you can add 我向你 in front to turn them into full sentences.
This would literally translate to “I towards you congratulate,” but it really just means “congratulations.”
9. 燕雀相贺
Pinyin: yàn què xiāng hè
English: “a sparrow and swallow’s congratulations”
This idiom literally means “a sparrow and swallow’s congratulations,” but you can think of it as congratulating someone building their “nest.”
10. 祝你婚姻幸福！
Pinyin: zhù nǐ hūn yīn xìng fú!
English: Congratulations on your marriage; I wish you a happy marriage!
11. 恭喜你顺利毕业！
Pinyin: gōng xǐ nǐ shùn lì bì yè!
English: Happy graduation!
12. 祝贺你找到新工作！
Pinyin: zhù hè nǐ zhǎo dào xīn gōng zuò!
English: Congratulations on the new job!
13. 恭祝促销成功！
Pinyin: gōng zhù cù xiāo chéng gōng!
English: Congrats on the promotion!
14. 开张大吉！
Pinyin: kāi zhāng dà jí!
English: Auspicious beginning of a new enterprise (literally); Congrats on the new business!
15. 你真棒啊！
Pinyin: nǐ zhēn bàng a!
English: You are (so) awesome!
16. 太好了！
Pinyin: tài hǎo le!
English: That is great; Great news!
17. 非常好！
Pinyin: fēi cháng hǎo!
English: Well done!
18. 我一直相信你
Pinyin: wǒ yì zhí xiāng xìn nǐ
English: I have always believed in you
19. 我为你骄傲
Pinyin: wǒ wèi nǐ jiāo ào
English: I am proud of you
20. 我早就知道你能行的
Pinyin: wǒ zǎo jiù zhī dào nǐ néng xíng de
English: I knew (early on) that you could do it.
21. 我都替你高兴
Pinyin: wǒ dōu tì nǐ gāo xìng
English: I’m happy for you
Non-verbal Ways to Say Congratulations
Give Gifts
For some occasions—especially celebrations with a gathering—it’s customary to give a gift. Certain events may call for certain gifts, but the money-stuffed red envelope or 红包 (hóng bāo) is always a safe bet.
How much you put in depends on the age of the recipient and the milestone. For example, an engaged couple would receive a heftier amount than a kid graduating from elementary school.
Present Fruits and Nuts
According to modern Chinese wedding customs, you can also present fruits and nuts as a gift for the couple, such as dates, longan, chestnuts and peanuts.
Give Lucky Animal Paintings and Figurines
To celebrate a new business or office space, some people give paintings or figurines of lucky animals as a wish for prosperity and wealth. Decorative pieces like those can also be housewarming gifts to bring health and safety into the home.
Of course, you don’t need to wait for a big party to give gifts to your loved ones. You’re more than welcome to do so when they accomplish something major or minor.
The Cultural Significance of Commending Success in China
Maintaining Good Relationships
关系 (guān xì) is all about your personal, familial, social, business and even political connections.
As Forbes puts it, “[Guanxi] implies trust and mutual obligations between parties… Having good, bad or no guanxi impacts one’s influence and ability to get things done.”
Networking is obviously how one would expand and diversify their relationships, and a huge part of making and maintaining good relationships, regardless at what level, is by giving “face” or 面子 (miàn zi).
What It Means to Gain and Lose Face
Gaining and losing face is something that exists across many cultures, but the definition and gravity of the concept vary from country to country.
In China, it’s about respect, honor and social standing.
Some ways of giving and gaining face include gift-giving, greetings on holidays, wishing others well, providing encouragement and saying sorry and recognizing people’s achievements.
On the other hand, losing face happens when you humiliate someone or make them lose their dignity somehow. You’re basically tarnishing their reputation.
As you progress in your language studies, you’ll learn that this is just a snippet of all the ways to say congratulations in Chinese.
And the more you immerse yourself in Chinese, the more phrases like these you’ll learn.
With an immersion language program like FluentU, for example, you can see how native speakers congratulate each other by watching authentic videos (like movie trailers, commercials, music videos, etc.) thanks to the interactive subtitles that let you click on words you don’t know.
However, these expressions are sufficient enough to help you maintain face!
Download: This blog post is available as a convenient and portable PDF that you can take anywhere. Click here to get a copy. (Download)
