'Thank you' but 'thanks TO you'?

English as a Second Language English Vocabulary, Grammar and Idioms
1

Hi

  1. Could you explain, why thanks you (without TO) isn’t correct?

  2. Could you give some comments, what contexts could be appropriate for using such ‘patterns’ as:

  • thank you ever so much
  • Very Many Thanks
  • thanks awfully :shock:
  1. What is the second meaning of thankee (except just ‘thank you’? Is it similar to ‘if you’re so kind that would allow me (to do something)… that thank you in advance for that’?
    Can I say ‘a thankee’?

Thanks to you in advance. :slight_smile:
Tamara

2

Hi Tamara,

To answer your points:

Thanks you (1)suggests to me that the verb is being used but there is no subject (he/she/it) and so it makes no sense. If thanks is a noun, there is no grammatical connection with the two words (noun and pronoun) and so again makes no sense unless you link them with a preposition such as for example to/from/

The three examples in (2) would be used in informal conversational English. If I were feeling very snobbish, I could denote them as examples from different types of people but I’m not. In all honesty they are all of equal value.

In number (3) thankee to me sounds quite rustic and quaint as a corruption of thank you and if you used it, it would sound amusing. In films/novels set in the 1920s/1930s the local country people would use it to say thank you to the gentry with men touching their forelock and women curtseying. So it’s best left in the past and you wouldn’t say a thankee.

Alan

3

Hi Alan,

Thank you for the explanation.

(1)
I thank you - ‘thank’ is a verb.
my thanks to you - ‘thanks’ is a noun. And a preposition is needed.
Have I understood you right?

(So, only ‘He thanks you’ would be correct.)

(2) I didn’t (and don’t) use the above patterns, this was/is just one of my usual everyday attempts to tune up my filters and learn different English(es :)).
(I live in a non-university town in Herts, where ‘the street language’ is quite different from what grammar books recommend to use :slight_smile: But I need to understand it right…
So… sorry, if some my questions are not stylish enough for this forum…

(3)

OK. Thanks.

(4) By the way, is thanks a plural from thank? For me it sounds so…
But, if yes, what a need could be for using ‘many thanks’? :slight_smile:

Tamara

4

Hi Tamara,

Your confirmation of (1) is fine. Your point (4) many thanks - this is just expressing thanks in a very grateful way.

Your comment:

has me mystified. I didn’t know that you had to pass a ‘style’ test to post something on the forum! What you ask is fine and always very interesting.

Alan

5

No, no, no, Alan… I didn’t mean at all that the forum makes me forced to filter my questions. :slight_smile:

I only wanted to give the reason (cause?) of my morbid taste for “non-impeccable” English (that obviously reveals in some my questions). :slight_smile:

Tamara

P.S.
…thank you! :slight_smile:

6

[quote=“Tamara”]
No, no, no, Alan… I didn’t mean at all that the forum makes me forced to filter my questions. :slight_smile:

I only wanted to give the reason (cause?) of my morbid taste for “non-impeccable” English (that obviously reveals in some my questions). :slight_smile:

“Thanks God” :slight_smile: , this topic is coming to an end".

Non-native speaker

7

… and just to make sure it ends as precisely as possible, let’s finish it off by making that unnecessary “s” redundant:
Thank God! :wink:
.

8

Hi Yankee, that mistake, which is very common among non-native speakers of English, has been this time intentionally made :lol:

We can also finish it off by making this “unnecessary” redundant. :evil:

9

Hi toefl

I’m well aware that that’s a commonly made mistake. But seeing as other non-native speakers might just read this thread in an effort to get correct information, it seemed worth mentioning that the unnecessary “s” is, in fact, unnecessary and should be “fired”.:wink:

10

Agree, unnecessary “S”, you are dismissed, fired, laid off, pink-slipped, discharged…

:wink: