Several readers have written to ask which preposition should be used with congratulations. Should we say “congratulations on” or “congratulations for”?

The answer is, “It depends.”

In the singular, congratulation is the action of congratulating. In the plural, congratulations is what one offers to express pleasure in the success or good fortune of another.

The preposition on is used when expressing one’s good wishes in the context of a happy event:

 

 

 

This advice sounded good at first read. I don’t have much formal education in grammar. It may reflect standard usage. As I thought about the mechanics, though, the examples using ‘for’ sounded increasingly unnatural. I came to hold a different view.

First, achievements such as completing, leading, and saving are all events.

Second, grammatically, as an object for the preposition, “winning the lottery” does not differ from “leading the scouts to safety.”

Third, in all seven on/for examples, the object of the preposition is a noun. The first three examples use natural nouns: marriage, baby, and promotion. The fourth and the final three examples all use noun phrases based on gerunds: winning, completing, leading, and saving.

The preposition used, therefore, should not change. Either “winning the lottery” should be in the ‘for’ list, or all seven examples should use ‘on.’

As I see it, the difference should be determined not by ‘event’ versus ‘achievement’ (my 30th anniversary last month certainly was an achievement!).

The time to use ‘congratulations for’ comes when the reason becomes an optional part of the sentence. You can see this in the ‘to’ examples:

“The CEO offered congratulations to all her employees [for working 1,000 hours without any injuries].
“The townspeople offered congratulations to the utility company for the swift restoration of power.”