DO say “You’re welcome”: And Other Replies to “Thank you”!

- Which of these 17 interesting ways do you use

to reply to thank you?

Let's find out.

(upbeat music)

Hello, this is Keith from English Speaking Success

and the Keith Speaking Academy.

So listen, probably the most common answer

to thanks or thank you is you're welcome, right?

You are welcome.

We pronounce it you're welcome.

You're welcome.

And that's absolutely fine.

You can use that.

That said, there are a lot of other ways

of replying to thank you,

and it's probably useful for you to know about them,

at least to understand them,

if not maybe to use them as well.

So in this video, I'm gonna show you 16 other ways

you can answer thank you.

And at the end of the video,

I'll show you one way that if you use this,

you can show any British person

that you really know your onions.

I mean, that you really control English well.

To know your onions, great expression.

If you know your onions, right,

it means you know something really well, right?

My computer's broken.

Well, go and get Jack.

Jack's good with computers.

He really knows his onions.

So listen, let's make sure that you, with your English,

that you really know your onions in this video.

Let's jump straight in.

Let's look first of all at some informal situations

where you may reply to thanks or thank you.

I mean, imagine a simple situation where,

for example, you give a friend a nice cup of tea

or a cup of coffee and they say, "Thanks,"

and you say, "That's okay.

That's okay, that is okay."

Normally we link, right?

That's okay. 's okay, that's okay.

Or they say, "Thanks," and you say, "That's fine.

That's fine.

That is fine, that's fine."

Often we actually just say, "'s fine."

We drop the that sound right?

'S fine.

Thanks. 'S fine.

Another two you may say are, "Sure.

Thanks. Sure.

Thanks. Anytime.

Anytime."

All of these four are quite simple.

Now I have a friend, right?

And I've known him for a long time,

and he has this thing where he will say, "Thanks."

And I say, "No worries."

Which is a perfectly normal answer, right?

No worries, no worries.

And he says, "No, I'm not worried.

And I go, "Yeah, I know.

I'm just saying it's fine, don't worry about it."

He says, "No, but I'm not worried."

Okay, I mean, I'm just, you are saying thanks.

I'm saying that's okay.

And what he does,

he often takes the words literally, no worries,

and says, "Well, but I'm not worried."

Now, of course it's more idiomatic.

I mean somebody says, "Thanks,"

and you are just saying, "That's okay,"

you're saying no worries.

It's interesting

even native speakers sometimes can take the words literally

and can answer in that way, right?

There's a similar situation.

I know a few people working in waiter, in waiters?

They're not working in waiters.

They're working as waiters in restaurants,

and in their training, they get told, right,

not to say no problem.

Which is another answer: thank you, no problem.

Because if the customers say "Thanks,"

and the waiter says, "No problem,"

the customers may go, "Problem, but what's the problem?"

And there's a negative feeling, right?

It's a bit like if I say,

"Don't think of a pink elephant," boom.

What's in your head?

Boom. Pink elephant.

When you say, "No problem,"

people go, "Problem, what's the problem?"

No, no, no, there is no problem.

No, but you said problem.

And so people focus on the word

not the negation, the negative.

So in training, they're told don't say no problem

because it creates a negative atmosphere.

Like there's a problem in the kitchen.

Just say that's fine.

Sure. Anytime.

Things like that.

Now, I think it's perfectly fine

to say no worries, no problem.

They're used a lot. Very natural.

And they are idiomatic.

Use what you feel comfortable with.

Let's move on.

Okay, let's look now

at maybe slightly more formal situations.

I mean, let's imagine you've started a new job.

And you're meeting some new colleagues,

or you're speaking to someone you don't know very well.

They say, "Thank you."

You might say, "My pleasure, my pleasure, pleasure."

It's a zh sound.

My pleasure, my pleasure.

Or you may say, "Glad I could help.

Glad I could help.

Glad I could help."

Actually it's I am glad I could help, but we drop the I'm.

We just say, "Glad I could help, glad I could help.

Okay.

Or you may say, "Pleased to help.

Pleased to help, pleased to help.

Pleased to help."

Again, it's I am pleased to help.

We just say pleased to help.

Quite common, quite easy, quite regular to use these.

Now there are two more.

Oh no, there's one more

which I think is quite a British thing.

Again, slightly more formal.

Not at all. Not at all.

Link them together, not at all.

Right? Thanks.

Not at all.

I think that's quite British.

It sounds British, doesn't it?

Not at all.

And slightly more formal.

There are two others,

which I have run up against some interesting situations.

These are perfectly fine, they're great.

But now again,

you may meet somebody who doesn't like these answers, right?

So the first one is, thanks, don't mention it.

Don't mention it.

To mention, to say or comment or talk about.

Don't mention it.

It's a very natural answer.

Thanks. Don't mention it.

But once this guy said to me, "Why, why not?"

And I was like, "What?"

Thanks. Don't mention it.

Why not?

I want to mention it.

I want to give my thanks.

Why do you say don't mention it?

And I was totally taken aback and surprised and thought,

"But it's an expression."

I don't mean don't talk about it,

it's just a way of talking.

But again, he took the words literally.

And personally he didn't like that expression.

That's fine.

I think 99% of the time nobody will think about that.

So thanks, don't mention it.

And again, a similar one could be, "Thanks.

It's nothing."

Some people may not like that 'cause it has, again,

the negative feeling, it's nothing.

But actually giving thanks and accepting thanks

should be a good thing.

Don't make it negative.

I personally disagree.

I would just say, "Thanks, don't mention it.

Thanks. It's nothing."

Sounds absolutely fine to me.

Hmm, so again, don't over-complicate things.

Listen, notice what people use.

Notice how people react,

and just use what you are comfortable with.

Let's move on.

Okay, let's look at now situations where

you are maybe more than happy to help somebody.

And you want to express that you are really, really happy

to do something to help somebody.

For example, when you give a gift to somebody,

like a present or a birthday present,

and that person says, "There you go."

In English, if somebody gives you a gift,

what do you say when you're receiving the gift?

"Oh, you shouldn't have.

You shouldn't have.

You should not have bought the gift."

That is a such a common expression.

But we say, "You shouldn't have.

You shouldn't have.

Oh, you shouldn't have."

And then you say, "Of course.

Well, my pleasure," or, "You're welcome."

But if you want to be stronger, you can say,

"Oh you are most welcome.

You are most welcome.

You are very welcome."

Or my personal favorite, "It's the least I could do.

Oh, it's the least I could do."

It's the least I could do.

Meaning I could do many, many things, but as a minimum,

this is what I've chosen to do.

But that's an expression of

really being happy to help, right?

It's the least I could do.

This reminds me of a situation

when I was living in China, actually.

And a student gave me a gift,

which was nice for helping him.

And I said, "Thanks," and they said, "I should do it."

And I said, "What do you mean you should do it?

But you did it?"

Because in English, when we say I should do something,

it means you're probably not going to do it.

I should go and study English, but I'm not going to.

So when the person said, "Oh it's what I should do,"

it was a bit strange.

It didn't sound right.

And I think what was happening as they explained to me

was there's an expression in Chinese. (speaks Chinese)

Meaning, really, it's something I should do.

It's my duty, it's my responsibility,

and it's my honor, if you like, to do it.

So I was racking my brains thinking a lot,

to rack my brains, about how you would say that in English.

Well, yeah, it's my responsibility, it's my duty.

No, something I should do.

Not really.

And one expression that I came up with

was, well, it's my honor.

It's my honor, right.

Now, I think speaking with British and American people,

I would very rarely say that.

It's very strong.

However, when speaking with Asian people

in that Asian context,

for me it felt comfortable.

And maybe it's 'cause, in my opinion,

I think a lot of Asian languages,

and I'm thinking like Chinese maybe,

there's more expressions of formality

around etiquette and behavior than in English.

And trying to capture that

is sometimes difficult in English.

And so for me, that worked, it's my honor.

I've done this a lot with students.

For example, if I make a video with a student,

and the student says, "Oh thanks, this is great."

And I say, "No, it's my honor, really, it's my honor."

And it really helps capture the idea of I'm happy to do it.

I'm very happy to do it.

It not only a duty, but it's a privilege for me.

And I like that. It's my honor.

I was reading recently on a blog

about some comments by a veteran.

He was a US war veteran.

So this soldier,

often American people will say to a soldier,

if he's in uniform, "Thank you for your service."

And this soldier said, "It's my honor."

And it was that idea, right,

of it's a duty.

It's responsibility.

It's my privilege to serve for my country.

It's my honor.

So we do use it in English.

I think it's just used looking for the right time

to express what you want to feel.

There we go. Let's move on.

Right, finally,

that expression that will make you sound super British,

right, the one that will, when you say

it will show that you know your onions.

Remember, you are very knowledgeable about English.

This expression is an answer to thank you.

And I remember this was going back a while,

and my wife and I were traveling in the UK.

We were in a pub and we met this guy,

I think he was Spanish.

And we sat down, and after about two or three sentences,

I said to my wife, "God, he's been in England a long time."

And she said, "How do you know that?

We've only started talking."

And I said, "Yeah, but when I said 'Thanks,'

he said, 'That's quite all right.'"

And I just said, "That's the kind of local expression

you only know when you come and live in Britain."

And that was it.

That's quite all right.

That's quite alright.

The t of the quite, we often drop that sound.

That's quite alright.

That's quite alright.

Thanks. That's quite alright.

And I think that's just such a typical local expression.

One, good for you to know

if you are going to travel to Britain,

maybe one that you could use.

I'm not sure they use it in the States.

Probably not.

But anyway, good to know.

That's it for today's video.

If you would like the full list of all these expressions,

just click on the link in the description,

and you can download the PDF for free.

Start practicing and start getting better and better.

Listen, thank you so much for watching.

If you've liked it, do subscribe, turn on the notifications,

leave me a comment down there,

and let me know which is your favorite answer to thanks.

And thanks for watching.

I'll see you in the next video.

Take care. Bye-bye.

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