Is félicitations formal?

It is neutral. The sentence after it carries the register, with tu or with vous.

French · phrasebook

How to say congratulations in French

Congratulations in French is félicitations. It is a plural noun used alone, as in English, and it fits a friend who passed an exam as well as a client opening a shop.

Aurélien CuvelierSep 19, 2026

félicitations

congratulations

anyone

The ways to say it

How to use it

Both exchanges below follow good news. A student announces a passed exam and hears félicitations, with a remark about the work behind it. A couple announce their new shop and hear the same word, followed by a formal wish of success with vous.

Watch out

The final letter of félicitations is silent. It is greyed in the examples; the plural is written, not heard.

In a real conversation

Each exchange is a line and its reply. Greyed letters are written and not pronounced. A tie marks a liaison, with the sound you hear under it. A label under a verb names its tense when it is not the present.

Questions people ask

Is félicitations formal?: It is neutral. The sentence after it carries the register, with tu or with vous.

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Each one with its tu and vous forms, its register and real exchanges.

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Written by

Aurélien Cuvelier Founder, NuanceDeck

Aurélien Cuvelier builds NuanceDeck, the app that teaches Russian and French words in context. Each course follows the official proficiency word lists and a frequency corpus for its language, and every word comes with real, annotated example sentences.

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