If you’ve ever been around a Dutch person on your birthday, you may have found yourself being congratulated with it. This sounds really weird to English speakers, and the Dutch kiiiiiinda know it’s wrong, but we often do it anyway. It has everything to do with the rather interesting word gefeliciteerd, so let’s see how it works.
The one use
The word gefeliciteerd is the past principle of the verb feliciteren. Feliciteren means to wish someone luck, and it has the same origin as the Latin felix and the Spanish feliz. Speakers of French will recognize it as féliciter – we kind of took it from you guys.
In that light, it’s not all that difficult to see why we say it to someone on their birthday: rather than simply wishing someone a happy day, gefeliciteerd kind of means best of luck in the future, or, since we use the past principle, consider yourself having received my wishes of luck.
The other use
This is a very common use of the word gefeliciteerd, but it’s by no means the only one. The Dutch also use it on a lot of other occasions, ranging from passing your driving test to moving up to the next grade in school, buying a house, or having a baby. In these cases, it sort of still means best of luck with that in the future, but it also means something like well done, great job. Or, to use a more common English word that’s used in a similar fashion: congratulations.
So there’s your problem. The Dutch use the same word for both congratulating people on something impressive they did in their life, and to wish them a happy birthday. And while most Dutchies will know about this difference, on many occasions, we’ll forget all about it, and a deeply meant congratulations will just slip out when we speak English, which might leave you a bit baffled – surely, it’s not that big an accomplishment to grow older, right?
The word gefeliciteerd can even be used in the exact same sarcastic manner as congratulations can in sentences like Oh, you’ve finally solved that crossword puzzle after two weeks of full-time trying? Nou, gefeliciteerd.
(I realize this is the third time that I’m mentioning the word “Nou”, so I think it’s about time for it to get its own article.)(UPDATE: there you go!)
Van harte gefeliciteerd
Sometimes, you’ll hear the phrase extended to Van harte gefeliciteerd. The van harte part pretty much literally means from my heart, or perhaps more common in English: from the bottom of my heart. It’s not necessarily used as a superlative to the stock gefeliciteerd; you’ll hear both used interchangeably.
When using this addition, a Dutch person may even skip the gefeliciteerd part altogether, leaving only van harte: they’re literally saying from the bottom of my heart…, while the …I wish you the best of luck in the future part is implied.
Congratulating others
But wait, there’s more! You yourself may also be congratulated with someone else’s birthday. This feels like it makes even less sense. When a mutual friend or family member has their birthday, you may be told something like Gefeliciteerd met [name], in which [name] is the person who is having their birthday. Hè???
This is nothing more than saying Let’s both hope [name] will have the best of luck in the future, shall we?, acknowledging the both of you have a good relationship with them. This happens a lot, even without the met [name] part, during the notorious kringverjaardag or circle birthday, where a bunch of friends and family members of the birthday boy/girl are sitting in a neat circle, and you go around shaking everyone’s hand. It wouldn’t make sense to wish them all a happy birthday, but it does make sense to let them know you’re hoping the feestvarken (Eng: birthday boy/girl, but literally: party pig) will have the best of luck in the future.
Trading languages
All of this has led to some odd habits for both Dutch and English speakers. Dutch people may sometimes use congratulations to wish someone a happy birthday, even when they’re among Dutch native speakers only, yet still using the English word – and wrongly so, at that.
As a Dutch person, I have also received congratulations from English speakers on my birthday. I’m not exactly sure why, for it really doesn’t make sense, but perhaps the habit of doing so has slipped its way into English through foreign languages – I’m not claiming it’s only our doing, of course. I just like to think of it as a matter of trading languages and the quirky things in them, and by all means, let’s keep doing that!
A weird thing about pronunciation
Normally, I try to stay away from most pronunciation things in written text – there’s great videos out there for that – but this one is worth mentioning. The word gefeliciteerd consists of five syllables:
ge-fe-li-ci-teerd
Because the word is used so often, and everybody knows what you’re going to say anyway when you arrive at a birthday party – especially on a kringverjaardag – you can skip some of the syllables. Often, you’ll find it pronounced with only four or three:
ge-fe-ci-teerd
ge-fees-teerd
Or sometimes even with just two, either leaving the g out altogether or combining the first two syllables into a sound that’s pretty much unpronounceable to the Dutch as well – except in this instance, apparently:
gfees-teerd
fees-teerd
Long story short
Having your birthday around Dutch people can get a bit weird, for they might accidentally congratulate you on having your birthday – in fact, they might even congratulate your friends and family on you having your birthday. This happens simply because the Dutch use the same word for both happy birthday and congratulations.
All they’re trying to do is to wish you the best of luck in the future, or letting your friends and family know they’re wishing you the best of luck in the future. It’s weird, but look on the bright side: when you’re among Dutchies, you don’t have to worry about distinguishing between happy birthday and congratulations anymore! So, keep that in mind, and if you’ve made it all the way to the end of this post: van harte gefeliciteerd!
