3
What is the most important word in English? - “Thank you” Someone once told me that I was the rudest most polite person they knew. Why? Even when I am being rude I always use “please” and “thank you”. “Please” and “thank you” are, in my opinion, the most important and most useful words in English. Every sentence starts with a “please” and ends with a “thank you” so if you want to sound fluent, natural and at the very least, polite then you must learn the different ways to say these two magical words. So starting with “thank you”: Every time someone does something for you, helps you or when you want to show someone you appreciate something they said or did for you then you need to show them by using a word meaning “thank you”. You may hear “thank you” and you may hear a simple “thanks”. Both mean exactly the same, only “thanks” is slightly less formal and is more chatty. When you want to show someone you are appreciative of their kindness or actions you can say: 1) Thanks a lot (slightly informal) 2) Thanks a million (Informal meaning “oh I am so happy thank you, you saved my life!!) 3) Thank you so much (very polite) 4) Thanks (informal but the most used in natural conversation) When you want to be very formal to someone, for example if you are talking to the CEO of a company or someone equally as important, you can say “much obliged”. For

Way to Say Thank You

Embed Size (px)

DESCRIPTION

why say thanks

Citation preview

Page 1: Way to Say Thank You

What is the most important word in English? - “Thank you”

Someone once told me that I was the rudest most polite person they knew. Why? Even when I am being rude I always use “please” and “thank you”.

“Please” and “thank you” are, in my opinion, the most important and most useful words in English. Every sentence starts with a “please” and ends with a “thank you” so if you want to sound fluent, natural and at the very least, polite then you must learn the different ways to say these two magical words.

So starting with “thank you”:

Every time someone does something for you, helps you or when you want to show someone you appreciate something they said or did for you then you need to show them by using a word meaning “thank you”. You may hear “thank you” and you may hear a simple “thanks”. Both mean exactly the same, only “thanks” is slightly less formal and is more chatty.

When you want to show someone you are appreciative of their kindness or actions you can say:

1) Thanks a lot (slightly informal)

2) Thanks a million (Informal meaning “oh I am so happy thank you, you saved my life!!)

3) Thank you so much (very polite)

4) Thanks (informal but the most used in natural conversation)

When you want to be very formal to someone, for example if you are talking to the CEO of a company or someone equally as important, you can say “much obliged”. For

Page 2: Way to Say Thank You

example you can say “I am much obliged to you for finding the time to speak with me”.

If you know someone quite well, if they are your friend of you want to or need to be informal and if you want to say “wow, you really helped me out there, thank you”, then you can say any of the following:

1) You've saved my life

2) I owe you / I owe you one

3) I owe you big time

In American English you may here the word “cheers” which also means “thank you”. It is an informal way of saying “thank you” but it is not used very often in British English and it is never used in written English (American or British)

If you want to say “thank you” in an email or letter then you can say “many thanks”. It is more formal and often used as a way to say goodbye in emails and in other written forms of communication.

When you are giving a speech or presentation and you want to thank the audience you can say, “I'd like to thank....” and then who you want to thank

And finally...

Remember when I said that someone once said I was the politest rude person that they knew? Well it was because I, being typically British, am very sarcastic, and when you want to say thank you in a sarcastic way you can use the phrase “thanks a bunch”. It is an informal way to say thank you but usually It is used when you want to be sarcastic or ironic so for example when you want to say to someone “I really wish you hadn't done that as it has just made my life 10 times worse”. For example,

Page 3: Way to Say Thank You

your mum washes your clothes for you but didn't check the pockets for money and so now your $50 dollar bill is now all tore and worth nothing, so you can say to your mum “You washed my clothes. Thanks a bunch for checking the pockets first to make sure there was no money inside”.