When it comes to important events like birthdays, anniversaries, promotions, or religious and cultural holidays, it might make someone’s day even better if you can share your congratulations in French.
In this months’ edition of our conversation blog, we’ll cover lots of different words and phrases related to special occasions. Whether you’re the one giving or receiving best wishes, this blog will set you up with the language you need for all sorts of celebratory news – let the good times roll!
First of all, it might help to check out (or perhaps re-read) our previous blog on wishing others well, where we covered basic structures for everyday uses, with things like wishing good luck or to have nice meal. To summarise the key point from that blog, the most basic structure is to wish someone well by using:
- The adjective bon/bonne/bons/bonnes followed by a noun
Or, for the events we’re going to cover in this blog, the construction will be bon + noun of occasion.
So what type of special occasions might come up and what type of back-and-forth can you expect? We’ll look at the most common phrases in each category, but remember to switch out tu and vous depending on who you’re talking to. Vous is the pronoun to use when speaking with someone you don’t know very well.
Birthdays
Joyeux anniversaire / Bon anniversaire ! Happy birthday!
C’est quand ton anniversaire ? When is your birthday?
C’est mon anniversaire le dix août / C’est mon anniversaire en octobre / C’est mon anniversaire mardi. It’s my birthday on August 10th / in October / on Tuesday.
Quel âge auras-tu ? What age will you be?
Qu’est-ce que tu fais pour ton anniversaire ? What are you doing for your birthday?
You might also hear the noun anniversaire shortened to anniv in conversation or greetings, but this is mostly with children and young people.
Engagements, weddings and starting a family
Félicitations pour tes fiançailles ! Congratulations on your engagement!
Bon anniversaire de mariage ! Happy wedding anniversary!
Félicitations à vous deux ! Congratulations to you both!
Depending on how close you are, you might even be invited to a wedding, stag or hen:
mariage (m) wedding
enterrement (m) de vie de garçon stag do
enterrement (m) de vie de jeune fille hen do (you might sometimes hear this casually called un EVJF)
Both of these literally translate as the ‘burial of a boy’s/girl’s life’… a rather interesting metaphor for a pre-marriage celebration!
Nous attendons un bébé / Nous allons avoir un bébé. We’re expecting a baby / We’re going to have a baby.
Je suis enceinte. I’m pregnant.
Le bébé est prévu pour quand ? When’s the baby due ?
Félicitations pour (la naissance de) ton bébé ! Congratulations on (the birth of) your new baby!
Félicitations pour la nouvelle arrivée ! Congratulations on the new arrival!
Religious holidays and celebrations
Joyeux Noël Happy Christmas
Bonne fête de l’Aïd ; Joyeux Aïd Happy Eid
Joyeux Diwali / Bonne fête des lumières Happy Diwali / Happy Festival of Lights
Joyeuses Pâques Happy Easter
Joyeux Hanoucca Happy Hannuka
Bonne année Happy New Year
Work and studies
Bravo pour ta promotion ! Well done on your promotion!
Félicitations pour ton succès aux examens ! Congratulations on passing your exams!
J’ai été accepté à l’université de la Sorbonne ! I’ve been accepted into the Sorbonne!
Bonne chance pour l’entretien. Good luck for the interview.
Special occasions in France
If you’re living in or visiting France, there are other cultural events which you might also get to experience. Some you might recognise as similar to the UK, whereas others are unique to France:
Fête de la musique – Music Day – in mid-June, free concerts and parties take place all across the country.
La Fête nationale / Le Quatorze Juillet – Bastille Day – takes place nationally on July 14th, celebrating the start of the 1789 Revolution.
Fête des Mères – Mother’s Day – in France this takes place on the last Sunday of May
Fête des Pères – Father’s Day – in France this takes place on the third Sunday of June
General congratulations and responses
We’ve now covered a lot of ground in terms of special occasions you might need to talk about, which means we’ve covered lots of different words and phrases… But don’t panic – if you’re ever struggling to remember the specifics, you can use a general congratulatory phrase, like:
Félicitations ! Congratulations!
Bravo ! Well done!
Meilleurs vœux ! Best wishes!
Joyeuses / Bonnes fêtes ! Happy holidays!
Finally, you’ll need something to use in response to someone’s kind greetings. You can just mirror what they said, or try one of the following:
Vous de même ! / À toi aussi ! The same to you!
Merci beaucoup. Thank you very much.
Merci bien. Thanks a lot.
Language In Use
Here is a summary of the most phrases and structures covered in this blog:
Joyeux / Joyeuse(s) OR Bon / Bonne(s) + the noun of the special occasion Happy [occasion]
> Joyeuses Pâques Happy Easter
Félicitations/Bravo pour + the noun of the thing you’re celebrating Congratulations/Well done on [event]
> Bravo pour ta promotion Well done on your promotion
