Happy with means pleased with something or someone: a result, a purchase, someone's work. It's how you judge what you already have: I'm happy with my new phone. In the negative, not happy with is a polite way of saying something isn't good enough.
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be happy with + something/someone; not happy with + noun; happy for + person; happy about + news/event
- My boss said she was happy with the presentation and asked me to share it.
- We weren't happy with the hotel room, so we asked to move upstairs.
- Are you happy with your new course, or is it too easy for you?
What changed
First versionCongratulations on the new job! I'm so happy with you.
RevisionCongratulations on the new job! I'm so happy for you.
In English, happy covers both glad and satisfied, and the preposition decides the meaning. Happy for + person means glad because something good happened to them, which is how you congratulate someone. Happy with + person means satisfied with them, with their work or behaviour, and in a congratulation it sounds like a judgement from above. Only the preposition changed in the corrected version.
Happy about means glad about an event or a piece of news: She's happy about the move. Happy with means satisfied with something you can already judge: She's happy with her new flat. About is about the fact itself; with is about quality.
Your turn
The customer returned the jacket because she wasn't happy ___ the colour.
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with — The customer is judging an item: she didn't like the colour, so it's happy with. Happy for is about a person you're glad for, and it doesn't fit the colour of a jacket.
Write about something you bought in the last month. Say what you're happy with and what you didn't like.
I bought new headphones last month, and I'm happy with the sound, but I'm not happy with the short battery life.
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