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Speaker 1: Next week is a holiday called Thanksgiving here in the USA.

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It's a family holiday where we show gratitude and appreciation

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to others. And that gave me the idea to help

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you boost your vocabulary about thanking someone.

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Speaker 2: Welcome to another Happy English podcast, coming to you from

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New York City, and here's your English teacher, Michael.

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Speaker 1: All right, thank you, John, and thanks everyone. It's Michael

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here from Happy English and I help people speak English better.

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And this is Happy English Podcast, Episode seven seventy four,

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showing Gratitude. Today, we're going to be looking at something

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that might seem pretty basic at first, but you know,

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as always, I like to start at the basics and

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then deep dive into the topic. And the topic for

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today is how to thank someone and also how to

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respond when someone thanks you so you can sound more

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like a native English speaker. This is something that a

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lot of English learners, you know, get the basics down

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pretty quickly, but to really sound natural and fluent, it

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takes a little bit more. So let's jump right in.

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I like to think about vocabulary as like a tool

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in your toolbox, and like any good mechanic, you've got

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your toolbox of thank yous and you need to know

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which one to pull out for the right situation. So

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what are some of the tools that you probably already

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have in your toolbox. Well, you know, first you've got

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your base thank you. That's your everyday, reliable, polite way

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to express thanks. And then you step it up a notch.

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You've got thank you very much. Now, that's like, you know,

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a little more formal and it shows extra respect and gratitude.

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And then on the other end of the spectrum, if

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you're just hanging out with your buddies, you can just

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throw out a thanks, nice and casual. So thanking someone

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is all about matching the level of formality to the situation.

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Like if I were in a job interview, I probably

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wouldn't want to just say thanks to the interviewer. Thank

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you very much is more appropriate. But if I'm, you know,

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just grabbing a coffee with a friend, a simple thanks

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is perfect. And sometimes you want to go beyond just

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a basic thank you, you want to add a little

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more flavor. Well, one really easy way is to thank

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someone for a specific thing. You just need to use

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the structure thank you for plus the noun like thank

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you for the coffee or thanks for the coffee and hey,

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thanks for the birthday gift. Still kind of simple, but

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it gets the message across. Simple. But if you want,

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you can add a little something extra to make it

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more engaging. So instead of just saying thank you for

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the coffee, you could say thank you for the coffee.

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It was delicious. You're adding a bit more detail to

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your thank you. And you can do the same thing

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when you thank someone for a gift. Instead of just

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saying thank you for the birthday gift, you could say

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thank you for the birthday gift. I love it. It's exactly

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what I wanted. And sometimes you want to thank someone

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who did something for you. You want to thank someone for

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that action. In this case, you're going to use thank

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you for and then at jarond you know the ing

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form of the verb, like thank you for helping me

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or thank you for listening to me complain about the boss.

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And just be careful of one point. This is something

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a lot of English learners do, but it's not natural.

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You can say thank you for helping me, but not

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thank you for your helping me. I hear that a lot.

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You don't need your because the listener knows who you

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are are talking about. After all, you said thank you

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for helping me. Some examples could be thank you for

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cooking dinner, thank you for working hard today, and I

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want to say thank you for studying English with me

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here on this podcast. Now, I thought it would be

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helpful to add in a few extra ways to express

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thanks in English. For example, instead of thank you for

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the help, you could say, I really appreciate your help.

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And when you want to acknowledge someone's kindness, instead of

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just saying thank you, you could say that's so kind

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of you. English is that kind of flexible language. Thanks

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a bunch, thanks a ton, thanks a million. Now let's

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flip the script and talk about responding to a thank you.

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Of course, we've got the classic you're welcome. It works

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in almost any situation. But instead, when someone thanks you,

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you can say no problem, which is super common in

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casual conversation, like don't even mention it, or it was nothing,

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or my pleasure. You have a bunch of options. You

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know it's great, right, So it's all about choosing the

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right one for the situation. Remember, context is king. You

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got to match your response to the situation and your

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relationship with the person. And remember a basic idea in

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English is that the longer the sentence, the more formal

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or polited sounds. Thank you so much for every thing.

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I really appreciate it, versus thanks a bunch, Well, thanks

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a bunch for spending time with me today in this

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podcast English lesson, and keep in mind the best way

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to remember English phrases like these and any other word

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or phrase in English is to take that word or phrase,

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write it in a sentence that's true for you or

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true in your world, and then memorize your sentences and

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check this out. Do you need more experience speaking English, Well,

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you can get the chance to practice this kind of

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English with me directly. That's right. You can get more

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practice using your English when you join my podcast Learner's

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study group. There you can make new friends, join us

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for live group lessons every week where we practice these

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podcast lessons together. Plus you get access to the pda

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F transcript and audio download for every Happy English podcast

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in the past and in the future. And on top

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of that, each episode has exercises where you can practice

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this English point with speaking and writing checked by me.

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To learn more, just visit Myhappy English dot com and

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choose podcast lesson seven seventy four. Thanks a million. Remember,

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learning another language is not easy, but it's not impossible,

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and I'm here to help you on your journey.

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Speaker 2: This podcast is brought to you by Happy English. Please

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visit myhappy english dot com. Show your support for happy

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English by leaving us a review. Get English, Get happy

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Happy English.