ESL Help Desk: English Grammar Podcasts

English as a Second Language Writing Grammar Communication Podcasts Audio Stories and More!

Welcome to - B"H"
The ESL Help Desk

We're Open 24/7 !

The ESL HELP DESK is redirecting you momentarily to our home page, www.eslhelpdesk.com, where you can view our current podcast.

After visiting our home page, please visit our Library, where membership is currently free.

If you do not currently hold a library card, please register for one!

If you have a library card, please sign in.

To view the podcast you are currently looking at, which is in our Library, select "Thank You Very Much" from our catalogue of podcasts or from the "Communication and How To's" room.

Thank you! We hope you enjoy our site.

Feedback, Please!

Consider the following ideas:

What would you like me to write about?
What questions would like me to answer?
Did you recently see something written that looked incorrect, or hear something that sounded incorrect? Tell me what you saw and/or heard, why you thought it was incorrect, and what you think it should be.
Do you have any comments about the story you just listened to?

Your Feedback Is Our Feed!

Looking for
Our Grammar Book?
The Grammar HELP! Student Handbook

Looking for
Grammar Software?
www.softwareforstudents.com

Thank You Very Much
How to Express Gratitude

Today is Tuesday, the 2nd of January, 2007, and you have come to your ESL Help Desk, your home page for questions and comments about English grammar and writing. We are podcasting from beautiful and historic Boston. If you are in our listening audience today, welcome to www.ESLHelpDesk.com! Today's lesson is about saying "Thank you".

How do you express gratitude? Sometimes people say "thanks" and sometimes they say "thank you". But what's wrong with saying or writing a sentence such as "Thank you for answer my question"?

Whether you are writing a business letter on nice stationary, or writing a simple email letter, whether you are corresponding in response to a job opening or as a cover letter for a school application, you want to express gratitude appropriately - and you want to express it correctly.

The Problem

Below is a sentence from an email that I received recently, and it contains an error that I see often. Maybe you can spot the error:

Really thank you to answer me quickly.

The Correct Sentence

Let's just focus on the core error in the above sentence, which is: "Thank you to answer me".

How shall we correct this sentence? Write your response in the box below.

Now that we know what the correct sentence is, let's look at why this is correct and the other not.

The Foundation

Have you ever learned about gerunds and infinitive phrases? (For reference see, Chapter 10 of the "Grammar HELP! Student Handbook".) In short, a gerund is a noun that takes the ~ing form. In which of the two following sentences is "going" a gerund: "I am going to the North Pole", or "Going to the Bahamas is a great idea"? Yes, "Going to the Bahamas is a great idea" contains the gerund.

In the following sentence, "I can't stop loving you", the first line from the great hit song of the same name, the phrase "loving you" is a gerund phrase.* It is the object of the verb: When you ask the question, "You can't stop what?", you'll see what I mean, because the answer is "loving you", a noun phrase.

In contrast, an infinitive phrase is a noun that has the "to + base form of the verb" pattern. "I would love to go there" is our example.

Gerunds can be used as the subject of the sentence or as an object. If used as an object, it can be the object of a verb or of a preposition. In your sentence, "Thank you for answering me", the gerund is used as the object of a preposition, answering the question "Thank you for what?".

The Grammar Rule

Okay, so why use a gerund (answering) here? Why not use an infinitive phrase (to answer)?

In English, whenever you have the pattern V-Prep-Obj. (verb, preposition, object of the preposition), the object of the preposition will take on a gerund form. That is why we say "Thank you very much for answering me."

The Verb "Stop"

So is that why Ray Charles sings, "I can't stop loving you" and not "I can't stop to love you"? No way! The verb "stop" is a special case. In his lyric, the two sentences have different meanings. If Ray sings "I can't stop loving you", he means that he will always love you. If he sings, "I can't stop to love you", he is saying that he is so busy that he does not have time to love you! Which one do you think is more romantic? Which one would you rather have somebody sing to you?

Apply Our Rule to New Situations

So the next time somebody opens the door for you when you want to enter or exit a building, you should say "Thank you for holding the door". And the next time you want to write a letter or email to somebody who has answered your question, write, "Thank you very much for answering my question."

Thanks!

One last question: What about the short expression "Thanks" or "Many thanks"? When you use this word or expression, you are actually using the plural noun thanks.

And now....

Thank you for listening in to www.eslhelpdesk.com! Please listen in next week when we respond to your next question.

Read our Musical Notes

Read the lyrics for "I Can't Stop Loving You", written by Don Gibson. The great Ray Charles sang this song to the delight of millions of listeners.

Visit Our Library:

MP3 Audio Stories
Communication Lessons
How To's
Grammar Lessons
Listening Comprehension
Grammar Lessons
Essays

Today's Date

Subscribe to Our Feed

Please donate to help keep more great ESL grammar and communication lessons. coming your way.

We appreciate every donation.