Please DON’T Say “You’re Welcome”! – Better Responses To THANK YOU | Learn English

Today we’re going to learn 16 different responses to ‘thank you’.

Hey Siri, how often do I have to water my tomato plant?

Here’s what I found.

Thanks, Siri!

Of course!

She didn’t say ‘You’re welcome!’

For the record, ‘you’re welcome’ is still by far the most common response,

so there’s absolutely nothing wrong with using it,

but different responses do have slightly different meanings,

so let’s expand your vocabulary and knowledge of English by learning them.

We’re also going to study real world examples of people responding to ‘thank you’

so you can see how they respond and how they string together multiple responses.

There’s a lot to study today, stick with me, and as always, if you like this video

or you learned something new, please like and subscribe with notifications, it really helps.

You’re welcome.

I want to make sure you know how to pronounce this word: Are you thinking ‘you’re’?

Because that’s not how we would say that. We would say ‘yer’, you’re welcome, yer, yer, yer,

this is called a reduction, where we change the sounds and make a word shorter, quicker in spoken English.

You won’t hear someone say: You’re Welcome.

It’s always: You’re welcome, yer, yer.

Yer, yer, you’re welcome.

You can also vary this by adding a word like ‘quite’.

Quite makes it more formal for sure, and you’ll see fewer examples of this.

By the way, if you don’t know Youglish, that’s where I’m going to get all these example.

You can type in a word or phrase and it gives you a bunch of different video clips

where that example is used. So it’s a good way to not only get examples,

but see how frequent a phrase is in spoken English.

So, you’re quite welcome.

There’s also: You’re very welcome.

You might say this if someone says to you: ‘Thank you very much’.

You’re very welcome!

But you can also just say it as a response to ‘thank you’.

Thank you.

You’re very welcome.

You’re very welcome.

You might also hear: You’re so welcome. This could be a response to ‘Thank you so much’.

You’re so welcome.

Wow, we’re also learning different ways to say ‘thank you’, aren’t we?

Thank you so much.

You’re so welcome.

You’re so welcome.

I like this one.

Okay, next. You’ll also hear ‘you’re most welcome’.

This one is more formal and less common.

You’re most welcome.

I want to point out that when we have a T between two consonants,

like here, we have ST, the ending cluster of ‘most’, and then W, the ‘w’ of ‘welcome’,

so the T comes between 2 consonants.

In a case like this, most native speakers will usually drop that T.

So it will be: You’re mos—welcome.

Mos—welcome.

Not: Mostt welcome.

Most welcome.

You’re most welcome.

No T. Let’s listen to that example again, plus another one, and notice, there is no T in ‘most’.

Another thing you can instead of ‘you’re welcome’, that’s casual, is “no problem.”

This one is more casual, but you will hear it a lot.

Actually, my cousin used to work at a restaurant that was a little bit fancy,

and she said one of the rules there is that they were not allowed to respond to ‘thank you’ with ‘no problem’.

I guess the management felt it was a little too casual.

But really, in most situations, I think it’s just fine.

Thank you.

No problem!

Now, my cousin was told instead to say something more formal like,

“my pleasure” or “it’s my pleasure.”

In British English, you can even shorten it to just ‘pleasure’,

but that’s not something we do in American English.

We keep it to ‘my pleasure’.

Now, another way you can respond to ‘thank you’ is with ‘thank you’.

This shows that we enjoyed what you asked us to do.

You’ll hear it a lot in a situation like this: Someone is invited to speak somewhere or present something,

and when someone says, “thank you for coming” or “thank you for being here” or

“thank you for doing this,” that person will say, “thank you for inviting me”.

Sometimes with more emphasis on ‘you’. Thank YOU for inviting me.

Or, thank you for inviting me.

Let’s listen to an example.

So there she said, oh, thank you.

In the next one he’ll say ‘no, thank YOU.’ And he’ll really emphasize ‘you’.

But both of these phrases work great.

This is a phrase I use pretty much every day when I get an email from a student thanking me for a video,

or for my Academy, the materials there, I always say, no thank YOU.

Thank you for watching, for signing up, for putting in the time to study with me.

You’ll so hear ‘sure’. Short, quick, casual.

Thank you.

Sure.

Or you might hear: Sure thing.

Even Siri knows ‘sure thing’.

Thanks Siri.

Sure thing.

Sure thing! She didn’t say: You’re welcome!

Of course.

‘Of course’ by itself means obvious, expected.

So when someone says ‘of course’ instead of ‘you’re welcome’,

the feeling is “it’s obvious that I would do that because I want to do that’.

It’s friendly. It’s a friendly way to say it.

Thank you so much for helping me today.

Of course! I enjoyed it.

In this example, there is music.

One woman said “thanks again”

and the other woman replied “of course”.

No worries, or, don’t worry about it.

This one is a little strange because it seems like we’re saying the person should be worrying that

they’ve asked you to do too much,

but that’s not really what it means. It’s just a very casual ‘you’re welcome’.

So he answered with no worries, thank YOU.

He did that Thank YOU thing.

And he also gave two responses that would have worked on their own.

And that’s something that definitely happens quite a bit.

“Of course, my pleasure”, or, “Sure, you’re welcome.”

Next, don’t mention it.

It’s like saying, you don’t even have to thank me.

Which we wouldn’t actually say, but we would say don’t mention it.

This one’s not too common. I do have an example for you, but it’s a pretty old clip.

And actually, this is a response that Siri might give you.

Thanks Siri!

Don’t mention it.

Don’t mention it!

She didn’t say ‘You’re welcome!’

Thanks!

Don’t mention it.

You’ll also hear ‘anytime’. It’s like saying, I would do this for you any time, I would do it again.

Anytime. There are other ‘any’ responses, like ‘anything for you.’

Or, Anything, anytime.

That’s like saying, I will always help out.

You’ll also hear I’m happy to.

This could look like this: Thank you!

I’m happy to do it.

Or, I’m happy to be here.

This could also be: I’m happy to help.

Sometimes you’ll hear with this: It was nothing, I’m happy to help.”

So: ‘It was nothing’ could be another response.

It’s like saying, it was so easy to help.

Thank you, it was nothing.

The last one I’m going to go over today is the phrase ‘no sweat’.

This is one that’s also casual, and you know what?

It's another one of Siri’s responses.

Thanks Siri!

No sweat.

No sweat!

Now we’re just going to look at a few examples of people responding to ‘thank you’ in real life situations.

You’ll notice that people stack responses.

Sometimes using more than one of these phrases that we’ve learned. For example:

“Thank you, it’s always a pleasure.” This kind of thing.

I hope this video has helped you understand the different responses to ‘thank you’

and how to build a good response yourself.

And remember, if you’re ever not sure, just say “you’re welcome”.

And now I want to thank you for watching this and giving me your precious study time.

I make new videos on the English language every Tuesday, be sure to subscribe.

I also run an Academy where you can train and take your English communication skills to the next level,

be sure to check it out, that’s Rachel’s English Academy.

That’s it, and thanks so much for using Rachel’s English.