Expressions to Talk About Celebrations in English
buddy welcome back to our weekly live
stream my name is Alisha and today we’re
talking about expressions for
celebrations expressions for
celebrations so I’m going to talk today
about how to express congratulations
for something how to talk about regular
events like regular celebrations and
we’re also going to talk about some
supporting phrases so ways you can
support people and celebrate that way
too so if you’re just joining please
make sure to like the video and share
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video and then I’m going to start the
lesson so today the first topic we’re
going to talk about today is how to
express congratulations how to express
congratulations so I read all of your
comments on YouTube and on Facebook like
to see you know what did you think of
the livestream and a lot of people write
like positive comments they want to
write something positive and they use
congratulations but they use
congratulations incorrectly I’ve noticed
this a lot so I really want to cover
this point in today’s livestream it will
be our first point today
video okay I saw oh hello there eagle I
think is that one of our members I think
hello there okay so let’s get started by
talking about how to express
congratulations
properly so first of all the first thing
I want to talk about is when do we use
sorry there’s the livestream playing
with how when do we use congratulations
we use congratulations to celebrate an
achievement some kind of achievement
something we worked to do or something
special that we planned so the point
here at the point I really want to make
here is we do not use congratulations to
mean
good job they do not mean the same thing
I think many commenters will write
congratulations like this video was
really helpful congratulations or
something but that’s like using
congratulations to mean good job and we
don’t use it in that way we use
congratulations for some kind of
achievement so when you want to write a
comment like a positive comment maybe
choose good job instead of
congratulations another thing that I see
in the comment section a lot is
sometimes people forget this s they say
congratulation but we always use the S
so congratulations congratulations you
need to make sure you use the S when you
use congratulations so there’s of course
this direct way to express your
congratulations when you hear the good
news you can say congratulations to
someone perfect that’s fine if however
you want to be specific like you want to
say exactly the
you are happy for that person about this
is the pattern to do it and the
preposition you need to do that
please use congratulations on noun
phrase congratulations on noun phrase
this is another thing that I see a lot
in the comment sections of videos and
livestreams congratulations on noun
phrase so do not use like an infinitive
verb here let’s take a look at a few
examples of this so congratulations on
your wedding congratulations on your
wedding
so wedding is somewhat near two people
getting married so your wedding is a
noun phrase so not congratulations on
marry incorrect or like congratulations
on I don’t know I’ve seen a couple
strange patterns usually congratulations
on like marry or congratulations on get
marry something please use
congratulations on your wedding or
something similar congratulations on the
wedding is okay too
so noun phrase is key here another
example congratulations on your new job
your new job so if your friend changes
jobs and you want to congratulate them
you can say congratulations on your new
job congratulations on new job or
congratulations on the new job ya raviga
has a nice example in the YouTube chat
congratulations on your graduation
perfect perfect
someone said congratulations 4f4 is also
ok for these two years of live streams
perfect perfect good
okay some other examples I want to talk
about a grammar point here that many of
you have asked about as well these two
let’s read them first congratulations on
finding a house congratulations on
finding a house so if you know someone
like searching for a home they’re
looking for a home to buy or maybe rent
I suppose and they find one finally you
can say congratulations on finding a
house congratulations on finding a house
so this finding this is just the verb
find with ing at the end so how do you
make a verb into a noun that’s here to
make a verb into a noun
use the ing form of the verb
so the grammatical like the word for
this this is called a gerund so by just
using the ing form of a verb you can use
it as a noun in this case find becomes
finding a house so congratulations on
finding a house by negative finding a
house was difficult congratulations on
finding pounds the last example is
similar finishing your project finishing
your project so finish the verb finish
we can make it a noun by adding ing
finishing your project congratulations
on finishing your project so that
becomes a now
freeze okay some good examples are
coming in congratulations on your
successes
hi les hello on Facebook grapes nice one
Jovi on YouTube says congratulations on
your new career very nice good okay
congratulations on getting a new watch
that’s that’s a situation we probably
would not use congratulations remember
we use congratulations
to celebrate an achievement something we
worked really hard to do so like you
made something special or you planned a
really big event we typically don’t use
congratulations like for something maybe
small we bye if we use congratulations
for a purchase it’s for something really
big like congratulations on your new
home maybe it may be like for a car I
suppose you could use that too so please
use it for big achievements big
achievements someone says
congratulations on your new baby yeah
good good good congratulations on the
new baby congratulations on your new job
exactly exactly so if you want to
express like support about something
online right try using good job or like
great video or this was really funny but
you don’t need to use congratulations
unless it’s about a personal achievement
okay good good like like it
congratulations on your new okay good
everybody’s got it I think in the chats
at least fantastic
so we’ll take a quick break and then
we’ll talk about how to celebrate
regular events so you can see
congratulations is kind of for like
special things special achievements
maybe a one-time event so we’ll talk
about regular events activist okay so
let’s take a quick break
are we to have a webcam today oh my gosh
okay so a couple of situations where you
might want to give like celebratory
remarks where you might want to
celebrate I will choose a couple of
these and show them to you on this
camera over here oh where is it lucemon
I want there we go so a couple of you
have already mentioned this topic you
already used this as an example this is
the romance and love PDF cheat sheet but
there are like complements and things on
the back and they’re like this is a
situation where you would want to maybe
use a celebratory expression like
congratulations on your wedding or
congratulations on your engagement as
well okay
so congratulations on your engagement or
congratulations on your wedding that’s a
situation where you might also travel
situations I suppose like
congratulations on your new job overseas
overseas back over here exactly so this
is another situation where you might
want to talk about something celebratory
so
Travel is another once a couple of
vocabulary words if you want to pick
them up
okay Oh show a couple more later but you
can get those for free below the video
on YouTube the link below the video the
description not the chat on YouTube or
above the video on Facebook okay yeah it
is totally okay so let’s move on to part
two for today’s topic part two is how to
express your you’re like happy you’re
happy wishes for someone for a regular
event or regular occurrence so if you
have not already please don’t forget to
like and share the video so that other
learners can find today’s lesson okay so
let’s go I’ll stand here let’s take a
look then at part two celebrating
regular events celebrating regular
events so part one here was about
special things so like a wedding like a
one-time event or a new home for regular
events we use happy happy so happy is
used for regular things like things that
happen once a year so really good
examples of this are happy anniversary
and happy birthday happy anniversary and
happy birthday these happen each year
yeah so we use happy to do that we don’t
you may hear congratulations on your
anniversary or you may hear like
congratulations on your birthday but
that sounds more like a special occasion
for example like your 30 year wedding
anniversary
like that’s an achievement so you might
say congratulations on your 30 year
anniversary
that’s what
or maybe you turn 100 years old
congratulations on your 100th birthday
generally though for every year stuff
like stuff we do every year
happy Anniversary our happy birthday I
want to talk a little bit about the
story anniversary we use Anniversary
happy anniversary when we’re talking
about people so if you don’t know the
word anniversary we use anniversary in
this way to talk about the day two
people were married so it’s a wedding
anniversary here when we’re talking
about someone’s wedding anniversary we
say happy Anniversary happy anniversary
so you can use the word anniversary for
other things too so it’s not just for
people so for example I said today or
this week’s livestream is like our two
year anniversary livestream so that
means at this week our on this week two
years ago we started doing live streams
so
an event we can use anniversary to talk
about events in this way - but we don’t
use happy anniversary
for events instead we use a
congratulations pattern I talked about
so congratulations on two years of live
streams for example another example is
like if you open a store for example and
your store is open for five years
instead of saying happy anniversary for
your store which sounds unnatural please
use congratulations on five years of
business for example so if it’s a person
if it’s people their wedding anniversary
you can use happy anniversary
but if it’s not people maybe try using
congratulations on the time period
congratulations on two years of marriage
or two years of business or two years of
live streams so this is a small point
but it will help you sound more natural
okay
other ones yeah some people are already
writing my next point my next point
about happy is about holidays holidays
so as many of you know each each year we
have the same holidays and we use happy
before the holidays so some people are
not happy Thanksgiving yes Happy Easter
Happy New Year happy Valentine’s Day
happy fourth of July
happy Independence Day whatever it is we
use happy before the holiday except
Christmas in American English we use
Merry Christmas in British English
though I think they use happy Christmas
we do this for some reason it’s very
interesting so happy Christmas you might
hear in British English we use Merry
Christmas in American English we do not
use merry and like any other situation
really unless it’s like an old book or
something so happy plus holiday unless
it’s Christmas unless it’s Christmas
yeah happy Christmas is for the British
English speakers British English
speakers okay questions comments and so
on people are just sending example it’s
okay happy Halloween Merry Christmas
good good good it sounds good okay so I
think this part is probably pretty clear
the next part will take a bit more time
so we’ll take one more break and then
we’ll finish by talking about some
supporting phrases so after you express
your well wishes your congratulations or
your
happy whatever you can use these
supporting phrases oh that were actually
one more point I forgot I forgot there’s
like another common error a common
mistake that I see with happy sometimes
people use happy before a noun phrase
like wedding I see this a lot like in
non-native speakers comments happy
wedding is not something we use in
English we do not say happy wedding in
English we say congratulations on your
wedding
we do not say that we don’t eat we don’t
say like happy baby or anything like
that either
we say congratulations on your new baby
it’s a special event we do not say happy
wedding or a happy baby or something
like that
please use congratulations for those
very special things okay that’s all now
I finally put a word - I forgot about
that okay so let’s take one more quick
break and then we’ll go to supporting
phrases so before I showed you eat
travel and the romance PDF examples I’m
getting very close to the mic and
shuffling papers sorry but the one that
I wanted to show you I can’t find it now
the one that I really wanted to show you
was the family one it seems to have gone
school is another case though another
case where you need to talk about
congratulations
especially in I think US culture these
are two good examples school and
business school and business I know in
many cultures maybe you don’t talk so
much about like yours your
accomplishments or your achievements at
work and at school but it’s very common
in in the u.s. at least to like talk
about the thing you did at school or
then you did at work and then to get
like some kind of praise like at home or
from your friends after that
so being able to congratulate someone at
the office or at school is a really good
skill to have it if you never say like
congratulations on finishing the project
or something to your coworker they might
feel really sad actually so remember
like of course it’s good to be able to
talk about the everyday like work in
school things on these but also please
keep in mind that you need to be able to
like you know congratulate people don’t
wait for them to congratulate so these
are a couple of other situations that
are good practice for congratulatory
expressions okay let’s move on to the
last part of today’s lesson then if you
have not already please make sure to
like and share the video so other people
can find it let’s continue to the final
section the final section today is about
supporting phrases supporting phrases so
we use supporting phrases like these
these are just a few we use these
supporting phrases usually after one of
these so we say congratulations on your
wedding or congratulations on the new
job or happy anniversary we give our
like well wishes and then we follow this
with a supporting phrase so for example
congratulations on your new job that’s
awesome or that’s so cool
so we’re giving like some kind of like
supportive opinion here so the first one
here is awesome
that’s awesome that’s awesome and this
when that’s so cool and let’s do the
third one too that’s such great news
that’s such great news at native speed
it sounds like that’s such great news
that’s such great news so these two
sounds connect
that’s such becomes that such as such
that’s such great news and these two
sounds great news kind of connect a
little bit that’s such great news so
what do these mean awesome awesome is a
very casual word that means something is
super cool it’s really great that’s
awesome that’s awesome it’s a very
friendly word Americans like to use it
quite a lot I think and the other one
that’s so cool that’s so cool this is
something we use for like a an
achievement we would use both of these
expressions for achievements please do
not forget these little apostrophe s’s
here so that’s that’s not that so cool
or that awesome that is awesome or that
is so cool
reduce it to make that’s that’s awesome
that’s so cool so these are very
supportive and friendly phrases we would
use with our friends this one that’s
such great news so the key in this
expression is great news yeah so that
means you’ve heard something very
positive so you got a new job your
friend got a new job or your friend
found a new home at such great news
that’s such great news
so please use this when you hear good
news some something that you did not
know before that’s such great news okay
uh I don’t see questions someone said
Rodriguez said that’s pretty cool that’s
pretty cool yeah that’s pretty cool it’s
good huh said it shocks me be careful
with shock in English shock has kind of
a negative feel about it in many cases
like you hear something surprising and
maybe like scary or something that you
really didn’t expect and it’s kind of
negative then we use shock shock or
maybe something that really really
surprised you
so shock tends to not sound super
positive here so be careful with shock
okay on to this one cheers to that
cheers to that so Cheers
this comes from that expression we use
when we like touch our glasses together
we say Cheers
but this one cheers to that cheers to
that
so it’s very common to share good news
when you go out eating or drinking with
your friends or your family members
right cheers to that
is something we say just after we hear
good news so like my friend might say I
just bought a new house or like I found
a new house and we could say cheers to
that meaning let’s touch our glasses
together and show like appreciation for
that good news so the good news you just
told us cheers to that
so that’s a very friendly positive
expression and we
usually tension glasses together after
that okay yeah cheers to that
cheers to that okay um good onward to
this next one I think I saw this in the
chat earlier I’m so happy for you I am
so happy for you
so at native speed that sounds like I’m
so happy for you
I’m so happy for you so I’m so happy
points to be careful of first this I’m I
don’t forget your mmm
I am reduces to I’m I’m so happy for you
for you please use the preposition for
here happy for you that means I’m very
happy because you have good news so I
feel happy because of you I feel happy
for the purpose of supporting you Victor
hello there
what if I say that’s amazing perfect
yeah that’s amazing is also great that’s
awesome
that’s amazing it’s also great to use
that’s awesome that’s amazing so I think
I saw in the chat too like that’s
magnificent whatever so you can use any
positive adjectives here really it’s
amazing that’s awesome that’s super cool
that’s great that’s rad whatever
something like that is fantastic be
supportive okay on to this one this
expression this is good for someone who
has shared a work achievement a work
achievement
you worked hard for this you worked hard
for this enjoy it
you worked hard for this enjoy it here
we have past tense worked worked you
worked hard for this for this so for
example I say I finished my big project
and my friend could say congratulations
you worked hard for this you worked hard
for this like for this moment like to
finish your project enjoy it so it’s
here means this feeling enjoy being
finished enjoy the feeling of
accomplishment you worked hard for this
enjoy it so we use this after some kind
of big accomplishment we might also use
this in sports like for marathon runners
like a marathon runner finishes their
first marathon ever or something and
then their friend might say wow you
worked so hard for this enjoy this
feeling or something similar so this is
good for a big work or maybe a sport
related accomplished other one Salah on
Facebook says what about way to go yeah
way to go is another good one I’ll add
it here way to go way to go so don’t try
to understand this phrase literally it
doesn’t mean like road or something to
travel way to go just means good job way
to go good job this is used I feel like
I feel like parents use this with kids a
lot it sounds really kind of nice and
friendly and sort of cute like this is
something my dad my mom and my dad said
to me and sometimes still say to me so
way to go
way to go it’s very nice okay on to the
last to the last one the short one here
is you rock you rock
so you rock this does not mean like this
has nothing to do with a rock like in
the object Iraq so two rock means like
you do a good job or you aren’t awesome
but we use this as a verb you rock
finally great work
good job great work good job so these
two these last two right here you can
use these every day but with your
coworkers if you want well maybe not
every day but when your coworker or
someone close to you has done a great
job you can say wow that’s great
great work good job so like for example
if your coworker does well on a test you
can say great work that’s awesome so as
our awesome person as our control desk
did on her most recent test yeah she’s
studying Japanese and that’s a great
work good job so we can congratulate the
people around us with these simple
expressions you know and it’s important
to you know show the people around you
that you’re paying attention and that
their success is important right so
please make sure to use expressions like
these to support the people around you
who will help you to build good
relationships so I hope that these help
you I don’t have any questions in the
chat I don’t think I think that was a
pretty straightforward lesson so good ok
Oh someone me Jodi on facebook says I
proud if you are I’m proud of you it
should be I’m proud of you I’m proud
[Music]
oops proud with the sari of you I’m
proud of you P R o u D I’m I am proud of
you that means I feel pride I would say
it’s good to use this one but use I’m
proud of you when you feel some kind of
like responsibility for that person’s
success so like if you are this person
teacher or if you are this person’s
parent or like you really you helped
them a lot you taught them many things
and now they’re doing something great
you can say I’m proud of you this sounds
really strange to me I hear this
sometimes from people that have like no
real relationship like they didn’t teach
me anything like they didn’t contribute
to me really but they say I’m so proud
of you and I’m like
like I guess like I understand their
feeling but it’s used when you have some
kind of relationship so again like when
if my mom or my dad said this to me I
would be like yeah like you know they
raised me and so they can say this or
maybe my teacher said this to me they
would you know it would it would make
more sense so we typically use this if
we had some like involvement if we
helped that person like grow and to
become better
so yes I’m proud of I’m proud of you
nem well says I want to know is
congratulations for you wrong yes we do
not use congratulations for you we might
say congratulations to you
congratulations to you congratulations
to you on something or for something but
we would not use for you tika says what
about you did it you did it yeah that’s
fantastic you did it you did it I’ll add
that to our list you did it past tense
here you did it so again after like
sports some kind of sports
accomplishment or after work
accomplishment you can say
congratulations you did it that’s
fantastic so please do that okay I don’t
see any other questions
oh I do see a question about monthly
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to monthly review please check the
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submit your audio or video file so
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finish so let’s end today’s lesson there
thank you very much to everybody who
joined this our special two-year
anniversary livestream
well time goes so fast but we’ll be back
next week next week will be August
August 7th my goodness August 7th the
topic or rather the practice I’ve chosen
for next week’s lesson is quick response
practice quick response practice I’m
going to cover every day greetings so
what does this mean I’m going to give
you some everyday greetings and then I’m
going to give you a lot of responses
that you can train like for example how
are you or what’s up or how was your
weekend how’s your day how do you
respond quickly to those things that
will be next week’s session so this is
something my students in the past have
really enjoyed so I hope you join too so
you don’t have to think about like how
do I respond to these small everyday
questions so please join us next week
August 7th Wednesday 10 p.m. Eastern
Standard Time out of New York City time
or your local time please use your
Google skills to find that if you don’t
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try a YouTube or Facebook if you want to
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okay we’ll finish there for today thank
you very much to everybody who joined us
as always and enjoy your weekend don’t
forget to download your free stuff from
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very much for liking and sharing the
video and for sending your example
sentences it was fantastic
so enjoy your week enjoy your weekend
and I will see you again at next time
bye bye
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