Nous voulons féliciter Marie pour la réussite de son examen.

We want to congratulate Marie for passing her exam.

Breakdown of Nous voulons féliciter Marie pour la réussite de son examen.

• Marie: Marie
• nous: we
• vouloir: to want
• pour: for
• de: of
• son: her
• la réussite: the success
• l'examen: the exam
• féliciter: to congratulate

Questions & Answers about Nous voulons féliciter Marie pour la réussite de son examen.

Why is it nous voulons féliciter and not something like nous voulons à féliciter?

In French, many verbs are followed directly by another verb in the infinitive without any preposition.

Vouloir is one of them:

• Je veux manger. – I want to eat.
• Nous voulons partir. – We want to leave.
• Nous voulons féliciter Marie. – We want to congratulate Marie.

So the pattern is:

vouloir + infinitive (no à, no de).

Why do we say féliciter Marie pour and not féliciter Marie de?

With féliciter, both pour and de can appear, but they are not used in exactly the same way.

1. féliciter quelqu’un pour quelque chose

   • Used with a noun:
   • Nous voulons féliciter Marie pour la réussite de son examen.
   • We want to congratulate Marie for the success of her exam.

2. féliciter quelqu’un de / pour + infinitive passé

   • Often with a verb phrase:
   • Nous voulons féliciter Marie d’avoir réussi son examen.
   • Nous voulons féliciter Marie pour avoir réussi son examen.

In your sentence, because la réussite is a noun, pour is the natural choice: you congratulate her for that success.
Féliciter Marie de la réussite de son examen is grammatically possible but sounds heavier and much less common in modern usage.

Why is it son examen and not sa examen, since Marie is female?

In French, possessive adjectives agree with the thing owned, not with the owner.

• examen is masculine singular, so we must use son:
  • son examen (her exam / his exam)
• If the noun were feminine:
  • sa voiture (her car / his car)

So:

• Marie (female) → son examen (because examen is masculine)
• Pierre (male) → son examen (same form)

The possessive does not change between “his” and “her”; it only follows gender and number of the noun:

• son
  • masculine singular noun
• sa
  • feminine singular noun
• ses
  • plural noun

What is the difference between la réussite de son examen and just saying son examen?

They focus on slightly different ideas:

• féliciter Marie pour son examen
  Grammatically possible, but vague: for her exam (which part? taking it? passing it?).

• féliciter Marie pour la réussite de son examen
  Very clear: for the success of her exam, i.e. for passing it.

So la réussite de son examen explicitly points to the success, not just the exam itself.
It’s similar to the difference in English between:

• “for her exam”
• “for passing her exam / for the success of her exam”

Could we say Nous voulons féliciter Marie d’avoir réussi son examen instead? Is that correct?

Yes, that is correct and very natural:

• Nous voulons féliciter Marie d’avoir réussi son examen.
  → We want to congratulate Marie for having passed her exam.

Here the structure is:

féliciter quelqu’un de / pour + infinitif passé
(d’avoir réussi = for having passed)

Both versions are fine:

• … féliciter Marie pour la réussite de son examen. (noun)
• … féliciter Marie d’avoir réussi son examen. (verb phrase)

The second one sounds a bit more direct and everyday: you congratulate her for having passed.

Why is it voulons and not something like voullons?

The verb vouloir is irregular. In the present tense:

• je veux
• tu veux
• il / elle / on veut
• nous voulons
• vous voulez
• ils / elles veulent

Notice:

• Only one “l” in voulons and voulez.
• The double “ll” never appears in the present tense of vouloir.

The spelling is just something to memorize; it doesn’t follow a simple add-letters rule.

Why is it nous voulons féliciter Marie and not nous voulons Marie féliciter like in German?

French word order is closer to English than to German:

• Basic pattern: subject + verb + (object)
• With a verb + infinitive: subject + conjugated verb + infinitive + object (noun)

So:

• Nous voulons féliciter Marie.
  = We want to congratulate Marie.

You cannot say: ✗ nous voulons Marie féliciter. That order is ungrammatical in French.

The main exception is with object pronouns:

• Nous voulons la féliciter.
  (Here la is a pronoun and must go before féliciter.)

Could we say On veut féliciter Marie instead of Nous voulons féliciter Marie?

Yes, and it’s very common in spoken French.

• Nous voulons féliciter Marie…
  – Neutral, a bit more formal or careful.
• On veut féliciter Marie…
  – Very common in everyday speech, less formal.

In modern spoken French, on often replaces nous for “we”:

• Nous voulons… ≈ On veut…

But in writing (especially formal writing), nous is still preferred.

What is the level of politeness of Nous voulons féliciter Marie…? Would Nous voudrions féliciter be different?

There is a nuance:

• Nous voulons féliciter Marie…
  – Neutral statement of intention: We want to congratulate Marie…

• Nous voudrions féliciter Marie…
  – More polite/softer: literally We would like to congratulate Marie…
  – Common in speeches, announcements, formal messages.

So for a toast, a speech, or a written message, you might often hear:

• Nous voudrions féliciter Marie pour la réussite de son examen.

Is réussite related to the verb réussir? Why use the noun here instead of the verb?

Yes:

• réussir = to succeed, to pass (an exam)
• la réussite = success

You can express the idea either with the verb or with the noun:

• Nous voulons féliciter Marie d’avoir réussi son examen.
  (verb réussir)
• Nous voulons féliciter Marie pour la réussite de son examen.
  (noun réussite)

Using the noun réussite can sound slightly more formal or written, but both are very natural.

Can you explain the pronunciation of Nous voulons féliciter Marie pour la réussite de son examen?

Key points:

• Nous → [nu] (the s is silent here)
• voulons → roughly [vu-lɔ̃] (final s silent; nasal -ons)
• féliciter → [fe-li-si-te] (all vowels pronounced; stress is even, slightly on last syllable)
• Marie → [ma-ri]
• pour → [pur]
• la → [la]
• réussite → [ʁe-ɥi-sit]
  
  • éu sounds like
• de → [də] (often reduced, like a very short “duh”)
• son → [sɔ̃] (nasal vowel; you don’t fully pronounce the n)
• examen → [ɛg-za-mɛ̃] (final -en is nasal [ɛ̃])

Liaisons: you can make a liaison between nous and voulons in very careful speech: [nuz vu-lɔ̃], but most people will simply say them separately as [nu vu-lɔ̃].