felicitaciones por tu bebé
/feliθitaθjones poɾ tu bebe/from spelling rules
The English phrase 'congratulations on your baby' is expressed in Spanish as felicitaciones por tu bebé.
This phrase is used to express joy and praise to someone who has recently had a baby.
Which one should you use?
While felicitaciones is used for achievements, felicidades is a very common, slightly more casual alternative used to express general well-wishes for life events like a new baby. To congratulate someone on the new addition to the family, you can use the formal phrase Enhorabuena por el nuevo miembro de la familia. If you want to be very informal and refer to the baby as 'the little one', you can say ¡Enhorabuena por el retoño!
Is it said differently in some regions?
In Mexico, a popular informal expression for 'Congratulations on your little one!' is ¡Felicidades por tu chiquito!
How does it change in a sentence?
To congratulate someone on twins or multiple births, change tu bebé to the plural tus bebés or su bebé to sus bebés.
Did you know?
- In certain regions, when saying felicitaciones, people may avoid mentioning the baby's name or the word bebé directly to ward off the mal de ojo or 'evil eye'.
- In some Spanish-speaking cultures, a newborn is not congratulated immediately upon birth, but after the cuarentena, a traditional 40-day recovery period for the mother and baby.
- While felicitaciones is used for a baby, the word enhorabuena literally translates to 'in good hour', suggesting the baby arrived at a lucky or auspicious moment.
Examples in context
- ¡Felicitaciones por tu bebé!Congratulations on your baby!
- Muchas felicitaciones por tu bebé, es una noticia hermosa.Many congratulations on your baby, it is beautiful news.
Example conversation
Elena meets Alejandro at a coffee shop to celebrate his news.
- Elena¡Hola Alejandro, felicitaciones por tu bebé!Hi Alejandro, congratulations on your baby!
- AlejandroMuchas gracias, Elena, estamos muy felices.Thank you very much, Elena, we are very happy.
- Elena¿Cómo se encuentra tu esposa?How is your wife doing?
- AlejandroElla está muy bien, gracias por preguntar.She is doing very well, thanks for asking.
Sources
- IPA marked “from spelling rules” is derived from standard Spanish spelling, where Wiktionary gives none.
