Word
Wir gratulieren dir zum Abschluss.
Meaning
We congratulate you on the graduation.
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Course
Breakdown of Wir gratulieren dir zum Abschluss.
wir
we
dir
you / to you [informal singular, dative]
gratulieren
to congratulate
zum
to the (zu + dem)
Questions & Answers about Wir gratulieren dir zum Abschluss.
Why is it dir instead of dich in this sentence?
In English, we say "congratulate you" using a direct object. But in German, the verb gratulieren always takes the dative case for the person receiving the congratulations. That's why we use the dative pronoun dir instead of the accusative dich.
English says "congratulate ON", so why does this sentence use zu?
Prepositions rarely translate perfectly word-for-word between languages. In German, gratulieren always pairs with the fixed preposition zu to express what you are congratulating someone for. You just have to memorize gratulieren zu as a set phrase.
Where does the 'm' in zum come from?
zum is a contraction of the preposition zu and the definite article dem. The word for graduation is masculine (der Abschluss). Because zu always forces the following word into the dative case, der changes to dem. Finally, zu + dem naturally combines into zum.
If I were congratulating someone on their wedding (die Hochzeit), would I still use zum?