Saying thank you is a common way to express gratitude or show
appreciation when someone does something nice for you. But gratitude,
the practice of gratitude,
is so much more than saying thank you.
I'm sure that you've read blog posts or listened to podcasts on the importance
of creating a gratitude practice or maybe even having a gratitude
journal. In fact, inside my Confident Women Community ,
this has become a hot topic of conversation with
regular discussions and exchanges on how to best implement a practice of
gratitude. So as you begin to reflect on the past year,
how can you best express your gratitude in English?
How can you go beyond a simple, thank you. If you don't already know,
I'm Annemarie with Speak Confident English,
everything I do here is designed to help you get the confidence you want for
your life and work in English. In this Confident English lesson,
you're going to learn six different ways to express gratitude in English.
As a result,
you'll have richer word choices you can use to express the depth of
your gratitude.
Before we dive into this and let's explore what gratitude really means.
A simple dictionary definition states that gratitude is the quality of being
thankful. However, as you've likely discovered,
a practice of gratitude is far more profound.
Gratitude is a selfless,
deep appreciation for the things we receive,
whether tangible or intangible.
And a practice of gratitude can help you feel more positive,
build stronger relationships and experience catharsis or the
release of strong emotions.
On top of all of that regularly expressing gratitude allows you to
communicate reminisce about and relish your past
experiences while English speakers do often say thank you to express
their appreciation or gratitude to someone.
We tend to go beyond a simple thank you to express our gratitude
for a past event or experience.
And here are six ways to do that phrase. Number one,
I'm grateful or thankful... Rather than say that you're glad something happened,
you can go a step further and start your sentence with one of these
collocations that begins with I'm grateful.
I'm grateful for I'm grateful to.
I'm grateful that,
and I'm grateful to someone.
Let me give you a couple of clear examples.
If you appreciate someone's past actions toward you,
you could say I'm grateful to my mentor for teaching
me effective strategies for success.
Or if you want to express appreciation for a recent
experience,
you could say I'm grateful to have had this
opportunity. And now phrase number two,
I appreciate just like with I'm grateful we have multiple
collocations using. I appreciate... For example,
I appreciate that.
Or I appreciate the fact that I appreciate followed
by an indirect object, for example, an individual. And I appreciate how,
let me give you a couple of examples.
When you want to show that you appreciate a past experience, you could say,
I appreciate how my years of training got me through the toughest moments of my
career. Not only does the word appreciate express gratitude,
but it also indicates recognition.
You're recognizing the influence of a past experience or recognizing an
individual. And now phrase number three, I feel blessed.
This is an ideal sentence starter when you want to express a deep sense of
gratitude. When we start a sentence with, I feel blessed,
we can follow it with that, to, for, and with. For
example, in your life,
I'm sure there is one person situation or circumstance that you
feel truly deeply grateful for.
And you can express that gratefulness by saying,
I felt blessed for having another opportunity to rebuild my business
phrase. Number four on our list today is I count my blessings.
This is a popular idiom used to recognize all the positive things
that have happened in someone's life. For instance, you might say,
I count my blessings when I think about how lucky I was to get hired
before the recession. In addition to that expression, you might have heard,
I count my blessings twice,
and of course this communicates an even stronger sense of gratitude.
For example,
I count my blessings twice that my daughter was able to graduate despite
the ups and downs she's experienced over the last few years.
Phrase number five for expressing gratitude is I'm fortunate.
Every now and then when we reflect on the past,
we may also have a sense of feeling lucky as well as
thankful. And when we have that sense,
using the words I'm fortunate is an ideal way to express that combination
of feelings. For example, in my situation,
I would say with absolute certainty,
I feel fortunate for having an amazing team.
And now phrase number six,
our last way to express gratefulness in today's Confident English lesson
is I'm indebted.
When you think back on the people in your life who have helped you move forward,
they may have done so with great kindness, empathy,
and generosity.
When you want to express your gratitude for that individual
in a way that also indicates that you want to share that same kindness,
empathy, or generosity with them in the future,
you can use I'm indebted. To do that, we use the structure I'm indebted to...
And then the individual, for example,
I'm indebted to my sister for guiding me through some of the most difficult
moments in my life.
Now that you have six new phrases to fully express your gratitude,
let's finish with three creative ways to put all of this into practice.
Tip number one is to use intensifiers words,
such as forever eternally,
extremely intensify,
the overall sense of gratitude that you want to express. For example,
I'm forever grateful for the kindness and support of my neighbor when our house
was robbed.
Tip number two for putting your gratitude into practice is to create a
gratitude journal. In all the hustle and bustle of our daily lives,
it's easy to lose sight of the things that we're grateful for,
and instead be overwhelmed by the negatives that surround us.
Starting a gratitude journal not only allows you to use this new language,
but also counterbalance those negative impacts.
One common recommendation for implementing a gratitude journal is to set aside
three to five minutes a day,
and simply write down a few things that you feel that sense of gratitude
for. And you can use all of these sentence starters to help you.
In fact, you could have them listed at the top of a page,
so they're easy to reference and they help you think about what you're grateful
for in that moment that you sit down to reflect.
And finally tip number three for how to put gratitude into practice is to write
a note or a letter.
Never underestimate the power of a handwritten note.
The next time you want to show gratitude towards someone,
consider writing them a handwritten note, or if necessary an email.
You'd be surprised how rare this practice is and how
uplifting it can be for the receiver. When you sit down to write that note,
you can use some of these sentence starters to help you express what you're
grateful for. And now to finish this lesson today, I have two questions for you.
So you can immediately practice some of the phrases that you've learned today.
Question one,
which phrases from today's lesson are you most excited to begin using
in your English practice?
Give me an example of one of them and include what you're grateful for.
And question number two, take a moment to reflect on the past year,
what is a past experience or an individual that you're feeling grateful for
and how would you express that?
Choose one of the six phrases you've learned today.
And if you'd like share your example with me in the comments below as
always, if you found today's lesson useful to you, I would love to know.
And you can tell me in one extremely simple way,
give this a us a thumbs up here on YouTube, and while you're at it,
subscribe to this channel.
So you never miss one of my Confident English lessons.
Thank you so much for joining me. And I look forward to seeing you next time.