“We must find time to stop and thank the people who make a difference in our lives.”

John F.Kennedy, the 35th president of the United States 

“Thank you” is one of the first phrases people learn, and for good reason. According to Forbes, gratitude opens the door to more relationships, improves physical and psychological health, enhances empathy and reduces aggression, improves self-esteem and increases mental strength. It even can help you sleep better! All these benefits can motivate us give more thanks, but it’s also very pleasant to be given some, isn’t it? Everyone likes being appreciated and, likewise, no one wants to be taken for granted. So, this post is going to teach you useful vocabulary to express gratitude, nurture your relationships, and, hopefully, make you and people around you a bit (or much) happier.

INFORMAL SPEECH

How you express your gratitude may depend on who you are talking or writing to. With friends and family, we use “thanks” quite often:

1. Thanks for everything! – You’re welcome.
2. Many thanks for the flowers! – No problem.
3. Many thanks go to all of you. 
4. Thanks so much for helping me. 
5. Thanks a bunch (be careful with this phrase – it is often used when the speaker is angry, or as a joke when they really are not grateful: You’ve broken my cup! Thanks a bunch!)
6. Thanks a lot (may be used sarcastically, just like “thanks a bunch:” You told my secret! Thanks a lot! But not always: Thanks a lot for your great contribution.)
7. Thanks a million (may be used as just “thank you very much” (thanks a million for the beautiful roses) or in an ironic way to say that you are annoyed or angry about something that someone has done or said (thanks a million for telling everyone I like him!)

FORMAL SPEECH

It’s only natural that more formal situations require more formal vocabulary. Here are some phrases which might help:

1. Let me express my deep/profound/heartfelt/sincere gratitude to you for all the great work you have done. 
2. I bought you a little gift as a token of my gratitude/appreciation (“a token of gratitude/appreciation” is a formal phrase which means something that you do for someone or that you give them as a way of showing your feelings towards them).
3. Please accept my heartfelt/sincere/warm thanks for supporting our family in this time of crisis (“thanks” makes the sentence a bit less formal though).
4. I deeply/greatly appreciate what you have done. 
5. We are deeply/very thankful for this chance. 
6. We feel/are deeply/enormously/especially/extremely/genuinely/immensely/more than/particularly/truly/profoundly grateful to your team for the support and patience.
7. I would like to take this opportunity / let me take this opportunity to thank you. 

We hope that this vocabulary will help you express your gratitude in both formal and informal situations.

And now would be a good time to watch a video about the importance and effects of gratitude. If it’s difficult for you to follow what the speaker says, use the auto-generated subtitles. They are quite correct and helpful.

The video is inspiring, isn’t it?

At the end of this post, we’d like to gratefully list a few more ways to express gratitude. The expressions are taken from the video:

• You have my deepest respect/gratitude for choosing to be here.
• My heart swells with gratitude for Robbie. 

Finally, we’d like to take the opportunity to add a few thought-provoking quotes, all of which are taken from the same video:

• Great teachers don’t need big IQs, they need big hearts.
• Gratitude can take us from feeling sorry for ourselves to feeling joy.
• When you change yourself, you change the world.

Dear readers, thank you so much for reading, liking and following! 🙂

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