20 Ways to Wish ‘Good Luck’ & 'Congratulations' - 29 Alternative English Phrases! + Free PDF & Quiz

[Music] hello everyone and welcome back to

English with Lucy today we are going to look at the phrases

good luck and congratulations and i'm going to show you lots of better

more interesting alternatives to further help you with your studies

and understanding i have created a free pdf worksheet that

goes with this lesson if you would like to download that just

click on the link in the description box enter your first name and your email

address you sign up to my mailing list and i

will send the pdf directly to your inbox very exciting

it also includes a quiz i know you will love quizzes first let's take a

look at good luck this is a very good phrase

but it's boring if we repeat it over and

over again

the first alternative is all the best or i wish you all the best and this is

not a direct translation of good luck we usually use

this phrase when we are saying goodbye to somebody

or we are parting ways especially at the end of a letter or email all the

best or i wish you all the best means i hope

you succeed good luck

number two is break a leg break a leg i wonder if you've heard of

this one before it's very popular because it sounds

so strange and almost a little rude where does that come from

it is supposed that it was said to actors

before they went on stage because it was considered

unlucky to wish them luck so if you wish somebody bad luck like

breaking a leg supposedly the opposite will occur

they'll have good luck and their legs will remain

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number three is a phrase that i use a lot

in a different context i'll explain it to you it is

blow them away blow them away now if somebody is blown away it means

they are shocked normally in a positive way

i was blown away by all of your lovely messages for example

so if your friend is going to an interview or an audition

and you want to wish them luck you can say blow them away and that means

shock and surprise them in a positive way

like most things it all depends on tone of voice so if i say i was

blown away by the amount of litter in the park

obviously i'm shocked in a negative way i'm not impressed

number four we have knock him dead and you have to do the fist movement it is

obligatory knock him dead um in this case

is them knock them dead knock him dead the meaning is very

similar to that of blow them away to knock

somebody dead is to really impress them again it depends on the context if you

hit someone with a car and you knock them dead well

that's not very good at all

number five is a very common phrase that i think also exists in many other

languages it is fingers crossed fingers crossed

i've crossed my fingers for you i'm hoping for the best

so when we cross our fingers it means we are wishing luck for either

ourselves or other people is that the same in your language or is it something

different please let me know in the comments i love

knowing about the little quirks of all your languages

number six just a very slight variation on good luck we have

best of luck best of luck and this is a shortened version of i wish you the best

of luck but in casual speech we just go straight

in for best of luck

another very similar one is number seven which is

wishing you the best or i wish you the best

number eight another similar one all the best to you

all the best to you i wish you the best

number nine is possibly my favorite go get em tiger the uh the rare

hands are optional but recommended this is very informal very slang and it

just means go and do it i know you can go and

impress them

and the last one number 10 you got this now it should be

you've got this but sometimes we remove the

at the end of you and just say you got this

you got this obviously if you're writing it

down put you've got this so there we have it 10 very nice

alternatives for good luck let's move on to alternatives

better alternatives for congratulations there are a few more of this one there

are many alternatives i have 19 for you and i'm going to check your

understanding in the quiz in the pdf so make sure you

pay attention

number one is my respects and if you offer somebody your respects

in a positive way it means that they have impressed you

now if you say my respects to you in a solemn

or serious voice it could mean that something bad has happened to that

person and you are offering them your condolences but in a positive tone

of voice my respect is wow you've impressed me

number two is hats off hats off to you this comes from taking your hat off to

somebody and if you take your hat off to somebody

it means that you are impressed with them and you respect them

so if somebody has achieved something amazing you can say hats off to you

that's fantastic

number three is a word just one word but i absolutely love it it is

sensational amazing sensational we have a very very

posh friend and he got completely addicted to the

word sensational you know when you have a

word a new word in your head and you find yourself using it

at every opportunity or his word was sensational sensational sensational

today was sensational but used in the right context

sensational can mean congratulations

number four is one that my mother uses quite a lot

it is get in there often shortened down to get in

you have to do the fist okay yes you can use it to congratulate other people or

also yourself if you hear that you've won a prize you

can say get in there get in yes

very very informal

number five is more of an american phrase we don't use it

as much in british english and i will show you why

it is you rock and that means you are awesome and in american english

it sounds so cool i grew up watching american tv shows all

the time they always used to say you rock but in

british english in my accent it doesn't sound cool at all you rock

there are so many phrases that i i just think they sound ridiculous when i say

them go get em tiger

the next one however is very british very british and it's it's rising again

people are starting to use it more and with good reason i love it

it is good show or jolly good show it's quite posh jolly

the word jolly means kind of very or extremely jolly on

its own means happy or cheerful but we can use it instead of

very or really jolly good show means really well done well done you

congratulations

number seven feels slightly more american to me it's nice going

nice going it translates to you've done well

very well

number eight is good for you or good on you be careful with your tone of

voice here because if you say oh good for you

that can sound extremely sarcastic so if somebody has something

that you want and you say oh good for you it's kind of saying

you get everything i want that but if you say it with real

meaning and heart good for you well done it means i'm really really happy for you

number nine is very similar it is well done you

well done you you've probably heard well done

on its own but for extra emphasis well done you that's really really great

number 10 beautifully casual nice one nice one well done nice one that

translates to good job yeah nice one

number 11 is so simple but i love it it is you did it

you did it congratulations i think that's what my mother said to me when

she found out that i had got a high score for my university degree

she said you did it it's a really nice way of saying

congratulations

number 12 is lovely if somebody does something

really clever really intelligent you can say

you're a genius you are a genius

number 13 is way to go way to go now this is another one that sounds

slightly more american to me i'm not sure about australia and canada

and places like that if you're watching please let me know we

don't say as much in the uk but it's still a really nice

one way to go very well done

number 14 is great for self-congratulation

as well as congratulating others it is pat on the back it's quite popular

nowadays if you yourself do something well

then you can say oh well done me pat on the back if you pat someone on

the back it means well done

15 is a really nice one quite casual oh you made that look easy

if somebody's done a performance or has been in an interview and has performed

really well you can say well you made that look easy

that was amazing congratulations

number 16 is one that i use all the time especially with my students if i see

that they've been performing really really well

then i say keep up the good work it means you've done

so well until now continue to do well because you're on track for success

number 17 is nothing can stop you now you are on a roll to be on a roll means

to have a continued period of success or good luck

number 18 is a relatively new one it is you're

on fire you are on fire if i speak to a fellow youtuber

and i say your channel is on fire at the moment it means it's doing so well

congratulations or you're on fire you're doing so well

again context and tone of voice is everything

if i tell someone you're on fire it means that they should

seek water asap as soon as possible

i've saved the best one till last it is number 19

and it is congratu expletive latiance so we insert a swear word

or an expletive between congratu and lations for example congratulations

that's amazing god that's so fun to say congratulations

now i don't teach swear words on my channel so you're going to have to

search those up for yourself google is your friend

right that is it for today's lesson i hope you enjoyed it and i hope you

learned something do not forget to complete the quiz i've

got the pdf worksheet with everything we've discussed today and

this quiz all you've got to do if you want to

download it is click on the link in the description box

enter your name and email address you sign up to my mailing list and i send

the pdf directly to your inbox if you would like

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fully subtitled so you can pick up loads of vocabulary

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i built for you i will see you soon for another lesson

my respect to you i find that really hard to say one second

my respects my respects to you

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