Dialogue: Congratulating Someone

Russian congratulations run on two case patterns that English collapses into one. To congratulate someone on an occasion, you use с + instrumental — and the most famous example, С днём рожде́ния!, is so frozen most learners never notice it is an instrumental at all. To wish someone something, you use жела́ть + the dative of the person + the genitive of what you wish — two different cases in a single short clause. This page pulls both apart in a natural birthday exchange. Read it first, then the commentary.

The dialogue

Line by line

— С днём рожде́ния!

This is the standard birthday greeting, and grammatically it is the tip of a much bigger pattern. The full form is (Я) поздравля́ю тебя́ с днём рожде́ния! ("I congratulate you on your birthday"), but in speech everything before с is dropped — Russians just say С днём рожде́ния! and the congratulation is understood.

The engine is с + instrumental: you congratulate someone с ("with") an occasion, and that occasion goes into the instrumental case. Here the occasion is день рожде́ния ("birthday", literally "day of birth"). Under с, the masculine день becomes instrumental днём, and рожде́ния stays genitive ("of birth") inside the fixed phrase. So С днём рожде́ния = "(Congratulations) with the day of birth". Every Russian congratulation follows this template:

• С Но́вым го́дом! — "Happy New Year!" (Но́вый год → instrumental Но́вым го́дом)
• С пра́здником! — "Happy holiday!" (пра́здник → пра́здником)
• С приездом! — "Welcome (back)!", lit. "(congratulations) with your arrival"
• Поздравля́ю тебя́ с побе́дой! — "Congratulations on the win!" (побе́да → побе́дой)

— Жела́ю тебе́ сча́стья и здоро́вья!

Now the second pattern, and it stacks two different cases in one breath. The verb жела́ть ("to wish") sets up: жела́ть + dative (the person) + genitive (the thing wished).

• тебе́ is the dative of ты ("to you") — the recipient of the wish. This is the indirect-object dative: you wish something to someone.
• сча́стья and здоро́вья are the genitive of сча́стье ("happiness") and здоро́вье ("health") — the things wished. Why genitive and not accusative? Because жела́ть belongs to a small class of verbs of wanting/desiring that take the genitive of the desired object, especially when it is abstract or a "share" of something rather than a whole concrete thing. You wish someone some happiness, some health — an unbounded, abstract good — and the genitive is exactly the case for that partitive, "an amount of" sense.

So the line reads, case by case: Жела́ю ("I wish") + тебе́ (DATIVE "to you") + сча́стья и здоро́вья (GENITIVE "happiness and health"). Both neuter nouns in -ье/-ие take the genitive -ья/-ия: сча́стье → сча́стья, здоро́вье → здоро́вья.

The contrast that matters: с + instrumental vs. genitive

Here is the single most useful thing on this page. A full Russian well-wish chains both patterns, and they use different cases:

Поздравля́ю тебя́ с днём рожде́ния (с + INSTRUMENTAL) и жела́ю тебе́ сча́стья (GENITIVE)!

The split is logical once you see it:

• The occasion you're marking → с + instrumental (it is "with the birthday").
• The good thing you're wishing → genitive (it is "(some) happiness").

Learners constantly cross these wires — saying С сча́стья! or Жела́ю с днём рожде́ния — because English uses one word, "happy", for both ("Happy birthday", "I wish you happy things"). Russian keeps them strictly apart. A clean mental rule: поздравля́ть takes с-instrumental; жела́ть takes genitive.

— Спаси́бо большо́е!

The reply is the warm, slightly fuller "thank you". Спаси́бо is the everyday "thanks", and большо́е ("big", neuter, agreeing with the neuter-treated спаси́бо) intensifies it to "thank you very much / so much". The order is free — Большо́е спаси́бо is equally common — and the phrase is fixed; you don't decline anything further. To thank someone for the wishes you could add Спаси́бо за поздравле́ния ("thanks for the congratulations"), where за + accusative marks what you're grateful for.

Why ты here

Both speakers use ты — the verb-implied address in Жела́ю тебе́ uses the dative тебе́, the ты-form, not the вы-form вам. This fits the situation: birthday wishes between friends, family, or peers are warm and informal. With a colleague, an older person, or anyone you'd address formally, the whole thing shifts to вы: Поздравля́ю вас с днём рожде́ния! Жела́ю вам сча́стья и здоро́вья! — same two-case grammar, just вас (accusative) and вам (dative) for the polite register. Choosing тебе́ vs. вам is the one register lever in this exchange, and it must match the relationship.

Vocabulary gloss

Common Mistakes

Key Takeaways

• Congratulate on an occasion = поздравля́ть (тебя́/вас) с + instrumental: С днём рожде́ния!, С Но́вым го́дом!, с побе́дой. In speech the frame collapses to bare С + instrumental!.
• Wish someone something = жела́ть + dative person + genitive thing: Жела́ю тебе́ сча́стья / уда́чи / здоро́вья.
• The contrast is the whole game: the occasion is с + instrumental, the wish is genitive — never mix them.
• The person is accusative after поздравля́ть (тебя́) but dative after жела́ть (тебе́).
• ты (тебе́) is for friends/family; switch the whole exchange to вы (вам) for formal or respectful settings.