meaning of Congratulated

[Monika Aara]

Test No. incompl/inter-4 "Easy Questions", question 3

They ......... him for his brave actions.

(a) praised
(b) worshipped
(c) flattered
(d) congratulated

Test No. incompl/inter-4 "Easy Questions", answer 3

They praised him for his brave actions.

Correct answer: (a) praised

Your answer was: incorrect
They congratulated him for his brave actions.
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Hi,

Why don' t you use congratulate?

Thank you.
Monika Aara

[Alan]

This is to do with the use of the preposition. So we have:

They praised her FOR helping the poor in the country

They congratulated her ON collecting money for the poor
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English as a Second Language
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[Zabacinka]

Hi,
So the difference between:
to praise sb. for sth.
and to congratulate sb. on sth.
is only in prepositons, not in the meaning ?
Thank you in advance

[*Delta*]

flattered - i think - it's when you tell someone a good thing about himself but not necessarily true
but when you praised someone you actually congratulate him for a good thing he did

hope that help
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A Life Unfolds .. No One Knows

[Yankee]

congratulate on/for

While I agree that the preposition 'on' is the most common one to use with 'congratulate', I certainly would not consider the use of 'congratulate for' to be incorrect.
Is this one of those differences between American English and British English again???

I would also choose 'praise' as the correct answer for this test sentence, but not because of the preposition. I would choose 'praise' because the meaning of the word 'praise' is simply more appropriate in the sentence.