Enhorabuena is a word you will hear very frequently in Spanish. If you don’t know this word at all or still find it challenging to use it properly, our Spanish school, El Rincón del Tándem, will help you master it in no time 😊

We continue exploring meanings and usages of Spanish words, especially of those that are very commonly used in everyday conversations.
During Spanish lessons, students ask often about expressions and words related to social life and daily life situations.

Therefore, today we will learn everyhting about the Spanish word: enhorabuena.
Let’s begin!

First of all, enhorabuena means “congratulations”. In Spanish, we use it as interjection ¡Enhorabuena! to congratulate somebody on something.

  • ¡Enhorabuena por tu ascenso en el trabajo! = Congratulations on your job promotion!

In more formal situations, we woudl better say “dar la enhorabuena”. Let’s see the sentence below:

  • La dirección de la empresa quiere dar la enhorabuena a todos sus empleados por los logros conseguidos = The company’s management would like to congratulate all its employees on their achievements.

Laslty, the Spanish words enhorabuena and felicidades are quite often used intercheangebly. Noverthless, there is a very subtle difference concering the situations we should use one or another.

In fact, the Spanish interjection ¡Enhorabuen! is used to congratulate someone for his/her achievements and accomplishments. While ¡Felicitaciones! is mainly used to celebrate positive facts and events, like birthdays, wedding anniversary, special dates, etc.

See the examples below:

  • Enhorabuena por tu última novela. ¡Es excelente! = Congratulations on your latest novel. It’s excellent!
  • Marcos me ha dicho que hoy es tu cumpleaños. ¡Felicidades! = Marcos told me it’s your birthday today. Congratulations
  • ¡Felicidades por tu boda! = Congratulations on your wedding!

We hope this short post on the Spanish word enhorabuena, will be useful to you 😊

As usual, we invite you to learn more and more Spanish words and to use them properly. For istance, discover more about the Spanish word entonces!

Finally, we remind you that our Spanish school, El Rincón del Tándem, is happy to provide you Spanish courses in a cozy place here in Valencia, where you can study Spanish by having fun and making new friends.

¡Hasta pronto!