As we all know, expressing plays an important role in human communication and social interactions. Being able to express oneself is an important part of being a human, and it significantly impacts our interactions with others and our mental and emotional health.
In this post, let’s learn about how to be thankful and why you should be thankful!
But this is all we already know as a person and we are grown with these values. At an early age, we tend to learn and express these gestures. We are keen to know how to say thank you abroad in another country, especially in Europe. Now let’s understand it more precisely.
The word merci itself has a history. In Roman times “merci” meant “wages” or “price” but lately it meant favor and mercy but even after it gets its way into English and meant “thanks”- that we know in today’s times.
So from the above paragraph, we get to know that in French we say merci when we are thankful. But when we have to thank a group of people at once? How will we say that… it’s an expression “Merci à tous” which means thanks to all of you!
There are many variations of using merci in French. Let us see some of the variable words and phrases for saying thank you!
| Je vous remercie | I thank you! |
| Merci infiniment | Thanks infinitely! |
| Merci beaucoup | thanks a lot! |
| Je vous suis reconnaissant(e) | I am grateful to you! |
| Grand merci | Great thanks! |
| Merci du fond du coeur | Thank you from the bottom of my heart! |
| Mille fois merci | A thousand times thank you! |
| Je vous exprime toute ma reconnaissance | I express to you all my gratitude! |
Sometimes a simple merci isn’t enough to say so you can still use extended gratitude from the above list to show more thankfulness when you have been treated to a gift or kindness. Also, the matter of formal and informal varies here as usual. You can use ” je te remercie”- when talking to somebody younger than you or familiar to you that may be your friend also.
WHAT WILL YOU SAY?
When you want to extend gratitude for the things that will happen soon. In other words, when you want to show gratitude in advance. You can say ”merci d’avance” which literally means thank you in advance. It is the most common way to say thanks in advance.
Here are some more words and phrases that can be use when you want to thank in advance.
| Je vous remercie par avance. | Thank you in advance. |
| Avec tous mes remerciements anticipés | With all my anticipated thanks |
| En vous remerciant par avance | Thanking you in advance |
| Je vous remercie à l’avance de votre aide | I thank you in advance for your help |
| Merci à l’avance pour votre collaboration | Thank you in advance for your cooperation |
| Je vous remercie par avance de votre réponse | I thank you in advance for your response |
| Je vous suis reconnaissant(e) par avance | I am grateful to you in advance |
HOW TO BE SARCASTICALLY THANKFUL?
Saying sarcastically thanks means when somebody did nothing for you but pretend to be an intangible giver. In other words, when someone takes credit without contributing in any which way.
Let’s take an example to make it more clear- When someone promised to help you with a task, the person really showed up to help you but it was more about his presence and not the help that need to be put in, instead you did it all by yourself. But the person took the credit for doing and helping you in that particular task only by his physical presence. So in this scenario, you will be thankful for his presence and not for the lack of help. As a result, you will thank him but sarcastically.
But how to express that in French? You can say “merci, bien” which means thanks a lot. But this expression can also be used when you are genuinely thankful.
Also, there are times when we say thanks but refuse. Like the way, you say thanks sarcastically to refuse something. It is more like “No thank you, it’s fine”. In English, we say by nodding our head to say “No” or simply by saying “No thanks” with hand gestures as we do for “stop it, right there”.
IN CONCLUSION:
Gratitude is important for a variety of reasons. For starters, it teaches us to recognize and appreciate the good things in our lives, no matter how big or small they are. It also helps us focus on the present moment and be more aware of the pleasant things going on around us. Furthermore, expressing gratitude can assist us in developing stronger and more positive relationships with others, as well as improve our overall sense of well-being and happiness.