Congratulate "to" - How correct is this?

Question

"We congratulate you to this most important result " - I came across this usage in a speech of fair importance, hosted on a distinguished portal. This speech may not have been delivered in English, but I suppose the translations should pass muster as well.

I wonder if this usage is correct - "to" following a congratulatory note?

Update - I came across this while reading the nobel presentation speech honouring Sir James Chadwick.

1935 Chemistry Nobel presentation speech

If we read towards the very end, Sir James is congratulated to the important discovery.

Well i suppose this answer would be useful for you in this particular scenario http://english.stackexchange.com/questions/70012/congratulate-for-vs-congratulate-on — rohit raina, Oct 09 '15 at 12:13
Many people make mistakes in using prepositions. I think that's what an interpreter did. — , Oct 09 '15 at 12:15

score 5 · Answer 1 · answered Oct 09 '15 at 12:19

The stats from the Corpus of Contemporary American English and the British National Corpus say this:

                           COCA  BNC

[congratulate] [pp*] on    451   157
[congratulate] [pp*] to      0     0

This suggests this usage is not just ungrammatical and unidiomatic, but indeed beyond rare even as a one-off slip of the tongue or a typo.

score 1 · Answer 2 · answered Oct 09 '15 at 12:20

According to Oxford Dictionaries Online the verb congratulate collocates with both prepositions, but the meaning is slightly different.

When you congratulate someone on something you give them your good wishes because something special or pleasant has happened to them, e.g. "I'd like to congratulate you on your marriage".

When you congratulate someone for something you praise them for an achievement, e.g. "I'd like to congratulate the staff for their good job".

So you should be using either of them and not "TO"

Congratulate "to" - How correct is this?

2 Answers2