I've seen both. It seems to be random. What's the explanation? Does it matter which one I say? Same with multan dankon and multajn dankojn.
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I would say that it's the difference of being thankful for one thing versus multiple things, but that's just a hunch.– Clayton RamseyCommented Oct 18, 2016 at 2:17
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2 Answers
Both Gratulon and Gratulojn exist and are used in the same way.
Multan dankon and multajn dankojn also exist both but sure multan dankon is used much more often.
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2I would just like to add that I think that gratulon is common because it fits in with saluton, dankon, bonan tagon, etc. And gratulojn s probably common because in many big languages "congratulations" is a plural word. In English, but also in most (or all?) Romance languages, such as Spanish (felicitaciones), Portuguese (parabéns), French (félicitations), Italian (congratulazioni), Catalan (felicitats), etc. Which one people use probably depends a lot on their language background and their personal preference.– RaizinCommented Oct 18, 2016 at 15:58
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3Very interesting observation, Raizin! And you can add the Romanian plural Felicitări! to your list! Commented Oct 18, 2016 at 16:03
I think this is simply a case where Esperanto is as logical or illogical as natural languages. We say "thank you", "many thanks" in English as well and I don't know of a definite rule to guide the usage. Compare this to "tack" and "tack så mycket" in Swedish and "merci" and "merci beaucoup" in French. There clearly is a need to intensify and/or pluralize thanks as well as congratulations in any language.
"gratulon" shows 22 hits in Tekstaro, among them this from Paroladoj de Zamenhof.
en la nomo de la tuta esperantistaro nian koran gratulon, nian dankon por lia granda laboro
"gratulojn" has 28 hits, among them this quote from Vivo vokas:
Miajn korajn gratulojn pro la naskiĝotago!