Learning to thank people properly is a core part of the English language. There are countless ways to thank people, but is “thanks you” a proper way to say thank you?
Saying “thanks you” is incorrect because it is grammatically incorrect. You can use thank you or thanks instead, but thanks you does not make sense. You should never use “thanks you” either in writing and in conversation.
The rest of this article will cover why thanks you is incorrect and the best way to thank someone.
Why Thanks You Is Incorrect
Thanks you is not grammatically correct because of the plural “thanks”. It’s okay to say “thanks” on its own because it isn’t attached to any subject. However, you does not take the plural form of “thank you”, therefore it cannot be “thanks you”.
For example, imagine you are in a group of friends and your best friend is next to you. If your friend says something you can’t hear, you’d ask them “what did you say?”. Notice how “say” doesn’t become “says”. This is once again because “you” does not agree with “says”.
In linguistics, the technical term for this is agreement. More specifically, subject-verb agreement. Under this rule, you cannot say “thanks you”.
The same applies to “I”. For example, let’s look at the “says” example again. Replace “you” with “I”. Since “I” is a singular subject, it needs to have “say” instead of “says”. If you forgot what you said, you can ask “what did I say?”.
Saying “what did I says?” makes no sense because of the subject-verb agreement. This is why you should never use “thanks you” when thanking someone.
The Best Way To Thank Someone
To thank someone properly, you should make it feel genuine and thoughtful. You can do this by either using a formal way of saying thank you or by thanking someone for the specific thing you’re grateful for. When you thank someone in detail for what they did, it feels more personal.
The simplest way to thank someone is to say “thanks”. Thanks is informal and can be used around people you know well. Around strangers, it can feel awkward. In those situations, it’s better to use “thank you”.
However, there are ways to say thank you in more detail. For example, you can say: “Thank you very much for doing (task) for me”. By stating the task, you’re creating a more genuine atmosphere.
Along with that, thanking someone for doing a specific task is more formal. If it’s a simple task, you can get away with a “thank you”, but if it’s a favor that takes a lot of effort, you should thank the person in detail.
Here are a few examples of different ways you can say thank you to anyone: thank you very much, I appreciate what you did for me, I greatly appreciate your help with (task), and thank you for helping me.
Read more about Thanks vs. Thank you here
