Expressing Congratulations: Email phrases

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Do you need some ideas on expressing congratulations to colleagues?

Expressing congratulations when something positive happens in the personal and professional lives of your colleagues and clients is a useful business skill. When you extend your sincere congratulations, you send the message that you care about what happens in the lives of others, even if it’s not connected to you personally. As a result, the colleagues and clients you reach out to are more likely to be pleased when you yourself succeed. In addition, expressing congratulations to your clients is an opportunity to network and remind the client that you’re there and ready to help them meet their business needs in the future. Applauding someone on the good things in their lives is a win-win situation.

Email phrases for expressing congratulations in a professional context

1.  promotion (when a colleague gets a higher position; e.g., from Junior Analyst to Senior Analyst)

• Hi John. I just heard you got the Senior Analyst job. Congratulations on the new position.

Here we use the word congratulations. Note that this is an uncountable noun that always ends with s. We can use “Congratulations” as a standard way to praise someone in both spoken and written English, but we never say “Congratulation”.

2.  positive work performance (e.g., your colleague got a new project for the company)

• Hi Sara. Michael just told me you won the ABC contract. That’s great news. Let me congratulate you on a job well done.

3.  a client gets a new position

• Hi Hans. I just heard from Klara, our Account Manager, that you were recently promoted to General Manager. Congratulations. I’m looking forward to working with you in the future.

In the phrases above, we see the structures:
congratulations + on + (something)
Let me congratulate you + on + (something)

Email phrases for expressing congratulations in a private context

1.  marriage

• Congratulations on your marriage! I’d like to wish you and your wife all the best.

2.  birth

• Congratulations on the birth of your son.
• Congratulations on the new addition to your family!  I hope mother and child are doing fine.

In past posts, we covered how to react when something bad happens. Now that we’ve given you some easy phrases to use when something good happens, you can confidently write your emails when expressing congratulations.  Want to improve your overall writing in English?  Click here for more information.
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FOR MORE INFORMATION

If you're looking for phrases, tips and tricks and useful downloads related to this topic, start here. In a range of topics, here are some more links for you:

• Apologizing via emails
• Writing status updates: tips and phrases
• 12 ways to regain control of your inbox and avoid an email tsunami

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