Congratulate Someone On Doing vs. Congratulate Someone To Do

Key details

Confusion Familygrammar-and-usage distinction

Rule Familypreposition and verb-complement pattern

TermsCongratulate Someone On Doing, Congratulate Someone To Do

Choose the right form

Decision table for Congratulate Someone On Doing vs. Congratulate Someone To Do
Meaning / situation	Form / construction	Decision
praise someone for an action or achievement	congratulate + person + on + -ing	Use “on” before the action being praised.
praise someone for a noun/result	congratulate + person + on + noun phrase	Use the same “on” complement pattern.
state a different infinitive purpose elsewhere	to + verb in another structure	Do not create a direct “congratulate someone to do” complement.

Quick tests

Meaning / construction test

Are you naming the action or achievement for which the person is being congratulated?

If yes: Use “congratulate someone on” + -ing or a noun phrase.

If no: Do not use “congratulate someone to do” as the parallel complement for the achievement.

Caveat: Choose by the documented meaning or construction; a different pattern may be valid in a different sentence structure or variety.

Examples

Example

We congratulated Priya on winning the award.

The -ing phrase names the achievement.

Example

They congratulated the team on a successful launch.

A noun phrase names what is being praised.

Example

I congratulated him on finishing ahead of schedule.

“On” introduces the completed action.

Further guidance

Boundary

This guide compares the complement after congratulate. A to-infinitive elsewhere in a larger sentence may serve a different grammatical role and is not automatically selected by congratulate.

Construction

The conventional pattern is congratulate + person + on + noun/-ing clause naming the achievement.

Decision

Use “congratulate someone on doing/having done something” to praise them for an achievement. “Congratulate someone to do” is not the parallel complement construction.

Sources and evidence

Sources are shown with the role they play in this guide. Historical or style-sensitive claims are kept within the evidence boundary described above.

congratulate — Cambridge Dictionary (opens in a new tab)Cambridge Dictionary · Current dictionary construction showing congratulate someone on + -ing or having done something.

Related guides

English Usage

Accuse Someone Of Doing vs. Accuse Someone To Do

Cambridge records “accuse someone of something” and specifically “accuse someone of doing something.” That supports of + -ing when the action is the alleged wrongdoing.

English Usage

Accustomed To Doing vs. Accustomed To Do

Cambridge records accustomed to something and gives -ing examples such as being accustomed to working or being treated in a particular way. Do not interpret the “to” after accustomed as an infinitive marker in this construction.

English Usage

Adapt To Doing vs. Adapt To Do

Cambridge distinguishes adapt to a situation or activity from transitive patterns such as adapting plans to fit new circumstances. The surface sequence “adapt … to + verb” therefore needs its grammatical structure identified before choosing an -ing form or infinitive.

English Usage

Apologize For Doing vs. Apologize To Do

Cambridge distinguishes “apologize to someone” from “apologize for something/doing something.” You can combine the two roles, as in “apologize to someone for doing something”; “to” marks the recipient while “for” marks the reason.

English Usage

Approve Of Doing vs. Approve To Do

Cambridge distinguishes intransitive “approve of” for a favorable opinion from transitive “approve something” for official acceptance or authorization. The official-authorization sense uses transitive “approve” with an object; do not collapse that separate sense into the “approve of doing” judgment pattern.

English Usage

Ban Someone From Doing vs. Ban Someone To Do

Oxford documents the person-action pattern as be banned + from + -ing and separately documents direct-object uses of ban. The cited evidence does not support person + to-infinitive as the equivalent prohibition construction.

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