10 Fun & New Ways to say “Congratulations!”

Your daughter’s new baby. Your grandson’s graduation. Your neighbor’s new dog. There are a zillion reasons to send someone your congratulations – and an equally wide range of ways to say it. We came up with 10 fun and new ways to say congratulations, each one ready for action on a personalized note or inside a customized greeting card.

Get Multi-lingual

Translate the word “congratulations” into a batch of different languages, giving the impression that the whole wide world is celebrating the recipient’s success. A quick online search shows the word translates well into:

  • French: Felicitations
  • Spanish: Felicidades
  • Irish: Comhghairdeas
  • Polish: Gratulacje
  • Croatian: Cestitke
  • German: Herzlichen Glückwunsch
  • Swahili: Pongezi

Just make sure you choose a quality translation site so you really are picking up ways to say congratulations and not accidentally saying something offensive or strange.

Go for an animal analogy

Animals are always fun, and you can capitalize on this fact by transforming your good wishes into an animal analogy. Here you can refer to a group of particular animals and tell the recipient he or she is the best one in the bunch.

  • If you were a lion, you’d be the pride of the pride!
  • If you were a pup, you’d be the pick of the pack!
  • If you were a crow, you’d be the leader of the murder!

Well, the last one really doesn’t work, but you get the idea.


Use Cheering noises
.

Yahoo! Yippee! Hip, hip, hooray! Picking a few keen-sounding cheering noises and then adding an exclamation point is a super-fast, super-easy and super-fun way to say congrats. Try it! You’ll love it! Yeehaw!

Select a snazzy quote.

The world is stuffed with great quotes, and a particularly snazzy one can relay your congratulations in a fun and sophisticated way. Examples include:

  • Voltaire: The biggest reward for a thing well done is to have done it.
  • Yogi Berra: I knew the record would stand until it was broken.
  • Dr. Seuss: Today is your day. You’re off to great places. You’re off and away!

Find a rhyme

You can combine a quote and a rhyme if you opt for the Dr. Seuss quote above, or you can make a special rhyme all your own. If you’re finding it tough to rhyme something with the word “Congratulations,” try phrases like “Good job,” “Well done,” or “Congrats.”

  • “You met your dreams and aspirations. Now take a bow – congratulations!”
  • “Now’s the time for festive fun – to celebrate your job well done!”
  • “Roses are red, violets are blue. Congrats! I am oh-so happy for you!”


Pick an era, any era

Using the colloquial language from any given era is one of the more creative ways to say congratulations. If you went for the 1960s, for instance, you could use words like:

  • Groovy!
  • Righteous!
  • Nifty!
  • Copasetic!

Channel a superhero

No, you don’t have to go calling your grandson Spider-Man or your daughter Wonder Woman. But you can point out the amazing traits that contribute to the person’s success. A card for a new mommy might read something like:

“Strong enough to sing nightly lullabies

…and leap piles of diapers in a single bound.

It’s Super Mom!”

Be a seer

Sharing a fun peek into the future is another way to pass along your congrats. You can congratulate the person’s current victory while making a sweet note of the wonderful things yet to come. This one works especially well if the person is on a journey toward even greater success.

  • Future Pulitzer Prize winner!
  • Future rock star!
  • Future Miss Manners!
  • Future CEO!

Return to nature

Nature comes with as many fun analogies as animals do, and you can play them up with well wishes galore.

  • May your success keep blooming like a brilliant flower!
  • Congrats on your redwood-sized success.
  • You shine as brightly as the sun!

Think like a fortune cookie

With their short, pithy phrases that sometime border on the absurd, fortune cookies make a great model for a congratulatory note. Keep the language simple, making your wishes read like a proverb.

  • Success comes to those who work their butt off.
  • Rather to be the happy success than the tail of an ox.
  • You don’t need success to be happy. But it never hurts!

With all these fun and creative ways to say congratulations, you can be sending out congratulatory cards by the bushel. Put your own personal spin on any of the ideas to make them even more meaningful, then hand them over with a great big smile.