Another word for you made me realize
You may also like: 26 Best Replies To “Thank You” (Formal & Informal) The past in the presentĪnother observation about that phrase is that it uses a past tense word in a present tense sentence. Because our society has used the simple present phrase “Thank You” in a continuous present way, we grow up understanding what it means, even if it does break a few rules. But as I said earlier, logic doesn’t tell grammar what do to. Wouldn’t it make more sense to say “ Thanking you for letting me know”?
Surely, when you say “thank you” to someone, you’d be doing it the moment, and not regularly. I’m not saying that I’m walking to school at the moment.īut hang on a minute. The simple present is the tense we use for things that happen repeatedly but not necessarily at the moment.įor example if I say “I walk to school”, I’m saying that walking is how I get to school. It won’t take a genius to figure out that it’s in the present tense.īut if we really want to be specific, it’s technically in the simple present. Some food for thought is what tense is the phrase “thank you” in. And everybody is going to know what you mean. However, logic doesn’t dictate grammar, social rules and tradition does.Īlthough you don’t say the word “I”, you are implying it. Therefore, logic would dictate that by saying you “Thank you for letting me know” you’d be instructing them to thank themselves. It sounds more like an instruction than a statement about yourself. It’s the thing that the sentence is talking about, just like how you would say “I eat pasta”. Surely the correct phrase is saying “I thank you for letting me know”? “Thank you for letting me know” technically shouldn’t be correct. Watch the video: Only 1 percent of our visitors get these 3 grammar questions right.