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■美國許多商家每年在感恩節均會大減價促銷商品，吸引大批顧客徹夜排隊。 資料圖片
The fourth Thursday in November each year, that is November 25 this year, people all over the United States celebrate a very important festival: Thanksgiving, or Thanksgiving Day. Originally, it was a harvest festival to thank God for the grains, fruits, vegetables, etc. that people receive from the land. Though it's becoming more secular(=non-religious) now, Thanksgiving is still a very special day for most Americans.
Thank you / Thanks
In daily life, how do we express our gratitude(= thankful feeling) to others? The most basic formats are: 1. Thank you. 2. Thanks. From these come a lot of slightly different versions, and here're just some commonest ones. 3. Thank you very much. 4. Thank you so much. 5. Thank you very much indeed. 6. Thanks a lot. 7. Thanks very much. 8. Thanks very much indeed. 9. Thanks a million. 10. Thanks a bunch.
From the above examples, we can see that combinations are indeed quite free and many. But note that we can't just combine different words at random - for examples, we can't say something like "Thank you a lot"! - No, we don't say 'a lot' after 'Thank you'.
Welcome / Pleasure
When someone express their gratitude to us, what should we say in reply? The ways to respond is truly many. Let's try to put them into different categories.
A. Use the word 'welcome'. Examples include: 1. You are welcome. 2. You're welcome. 3. You're very welcome. 4. You're quite welcome. 5. You're most welcome. 6. You're always welcome.
B. Use the word 'pleasure' to mean that you're pleased to help: 1. My pleasure. 2. It's a pleasure. 3. It's my pleasure. 4. It was a pleasure. 5. It was my pleasure. - That is, you can say 'a pleasure' or 'my pleasure', and both the present tense and the past tense are correct.
No / Yes
C. Use 'no' or 'not' to indicate that it's not a great thing you've done: 1. Don't mention it. 2. Not at all. 3. It's nothing. 4. It was nothing. 5. It's no trouble. 6. Think nothing of it. 7. No problem. 8. No prob. 9. No probs. 10. No worries. 11. No worries at all. 12. No sweat. 13. Forget it. - #1 and #2 are very common sayings. #8 and #9 are shortened forms of #7.
D. Use words that have the meaning of 'yes': 1. That's all right. 2. It's alright. 3. That's OK. 4. It's OK. 5. Sure. 6. Sure thing. 7. You bet.
E. Express your willingness to help: 1. Happy to help. 2. Always glad to help. 3. Any time.
F. Say "Thank you" in return. It's when you also want to express your gratitude to the other person.
Next time when you have to express your gratitude or reply to such a saying, you have quite a lot of sentences to choose from!
Questions
1. To be thankful is to be g____ful?
2. Find a word in the passage that is an adjective of 'pleasure'.
3. Guess "No worries" originates from which two countries?
Answers
1. Grateful.
2. Pleased.
3. Australia and New Zealand. ■MT Ness
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