How to Express Appreciation in English | 6 Ways to Encourage Others

Have you ever wondered what it is that makes our words so powerful?

How can they have such a strong impact on others? In his book,

the Seven Habits of Highly Effective People,

Stephen Covey has a quote that just might explain this. He says,

next to physical survival,

the greatest need of a human being is psychological survival.

To be understood, to be affirmed, to be validated,

and to be appreciated. Think about that for a moment.

With the power of your words,

you have the ability to motivate and inspire your coworkers.

You can make your best friend smile on her worst day,

and you can support a family member in a meaningful way as they make a

decision during a particularly difficult time. Most importantly,

you can give someone else the gift of knowing you,

understand you see, and you value them.

When you express sincere appreciation,

such words might come easily to you in your native language,

but if you've ever struggled to find the right words in English to

express genuine appreciation or sincere encouragement,

this lesson will help.

I want to share with you six different ways you can express sincere appreciation

in English, and of course, along the way,

I'll provide examples with seven real-world scenarios.

By the end,

you'll know exactly how to lift others up with your words of appreciation

and encouragement in English.

First, if you don't already know, I'm Annemarie with Speak Confident English.

Everything I do is designed to help you get the confidence you want for your

life and work in English.

One way I do that is with my weekly Confident English lessons where I focus on

targeted English topics including communication training,

just like in this lesson today. So while you're here,

make sure you subscribe to the Speak Confident English YouTube channel so you

never miss one of my Confident English lessons.

Before we get into six different ways to express sincere appreciation in

English, let's talk about a few dos and don'ts.

We'll start with three don'ts and then I'll share what to do instead.

Number one,

don't be vague or ambiguous in your appreciation.

Appreciation that is vague is appreciation that isn't specific

or personalized to an individual, and as a result,

it can sound disingenuous, for example,

rather than using some general statements such as great job,

it's better to include what exactly someone did well,

why are you telling them that they've done a great job?

The second don't on this list is don't overuse Superlatives.

Superlatives are extreme adjectives used in extraordinary

situations such as amazing, incredible,

or awesome. These words certainly are meaningful,

but when they're overused, they lose their power.

And lastly,

don't make impersonal statements similar to avoiding

vague language.

Words of encouragement that lack a personal touch or

that aren't tailored to a specific individual can sound hollow and

be easily forgotten. So with those three don'ts in mind,

let's talk about what to do instead.

So you're able to express meaningful,

genuine appreciation and encouragement. In English.

Here we have just one do.

Do focus on or consider how you want someone to feel

after they receive your words of appreciation. For example,

if you want someone to feel valued,

make sure that your words highlight in what way that individual is

valuable to you or what have they done? What have they said?

What character trait do they consistently demonstrate that you value?

Or perhaps you want someone to feel seen,

which means that they are noticed, understood,

and recognized to make someone feel seen.

You might acknowledge an area of difficulty or something painful that

they're experiencing, and again,

add on what you appreciate in how they're handling that

situation.

Or maybe you want someone to feel uplifted to do this.

You would want to make sure your statements provide support to that

individual. With all of this in mind,

let's get started with our first of six ways to express sincere

appreciation and encouragement. Number one, highlight their impact.

If someone did or said something that had a positive impact,

you can let them know using one of these three sentence structures thanks

to you or because of you,

and then add the outcome or positive consequence of that

individual's actions or words. A second option,

you made me smile when you said,

add in the quote and then finish with a thank you or number three,

I appreciate that you, and then again,

highlight what that individual said or did. Let's take a look at an example.

Imagine a parent's efforts at your child's school helped your child

avoid a health scare to thank that parent. You might say,

because of you,

I'm able to send my child to school without worrying about a severe allergic

reaction. Thank you so much.

The second way to show appreciation and encouragement is to

appreciate someone's efforts,

particularly during a difficult or challenging situation.

To do this effectively, we need to do two things. Number one,

acknowledge or recognize the specific area of difficulty or

the pain points someone is experiencing,

and then add on your appreciation for their

continued effort to do this.

Here are three sentence structures you can use. Number one,

I know you're doing the best you can,

and I appreciate that you haven't given up or you could change that just a bit

to, I appreciate that you never give up. Number two, I know X,

the situation is hard right now and I appreciate that

your Y.

You can add in what that person is doing or recognize

that they are continuing to take action, and number three,

thank you for always x highlight what they're doing

despite Y,

despite the challenging situation or the difficulty. For example,

let's say you have a coworker who is dealing with a particularly difficult

client right now, you know she's feeling discouraged and frustrated,

so you want to show some appreciation. You could do that by saying,

I know things are tough right now with this particular client,

and I appreciate your continued efforts to really understand what they need

so that they're satisfied with their service. Now,

if you feel particularly thrilled or appreciative of someone's efforts,

you could certainly add in more powerful or superlative language. For example,

wow, I'm blown away by the way you've handled X,

so the situation or difficulty,

or you're doing exceptionally well with X the situation,

and I know you're going to succeed.

Let's go back to that example of a coworker dealing with a difficult client.

Let's imagine that whatever the situation might have been,

it has come to a conclusion and in the end,

the customer were satisfied to express your appreciation to your coworker.

You might say, wow,

I am totally blown away by how patiently you handled that

client's demands.

I know it wasn't easy and I admire your determination.

The third way you can express your appreciation and encouragement is to cheer

someone on. In other words, provide encouragement.

When someone has worked hard or is continuing to work hard,

especially if they're starting to feel a bit discouraged,

here are four ways you can do that. Good luck with X,

good luck with the situation, and I know you will succeed in Y.

What will their ultimate outcome be? Number two,

you're so talented at,

and then let them know in what way they're talented and then continue with,

and I can see that you're getting better every day. Number three,

in the beginning,

you x highlight maybe an area of struggle or difficulty

and now you Y. What are they doing now?

What has improved or gotten better? And then end with a supportive comment.

I have no doubt that you can, and then again,

highlight the ultimate outcome. And lastly, you've got this.

I know you can do it. Let's look at one of these. In a real life situation,

imagine you have a friend who has been working particularly hard on

improving her English speaking skills,

and right now she's feeling a bit stuck to encourage her.

You might say in the beginning,

you struggled with clearly sharing your opinions in English,

and now I see you confidently sharing your ideas with others.

I have no doubt that you'll be able to clearly express your ideas

in the next business meeting.

Fourth on our list is tell them that you're thinking about them.

Never underestimate the power of a simple text message, a quick email,

a handwritten note or a voice memo,

letting someone know that they are on your mind.

You can even remove any pressure for them to respond by using

statements such as, I wanted to let you know,

I'm thinking about you and I know you will X.

You can add in what you know they will accomplish or do or

succeed in in the days ahead. A second option,

you don't have to answer or say anything.

I just want you to know that you're in my thoughts. And lastly,

just a little reminder that I'm proud of you and to keep doing what you're

doing. Imagine for a moment, a friend of yours had her own business,

but something recently happened and she has lost that business.

You don't want to overwhelm her or bombard her with messages,

but you do want her to feel supported.

You can let her know by saying there's no need for you to respond.

I just want you to know that I'm thinking about you and I know you will pull

through this.

The phrasalverb to pull through means to get through an illness,

a difficult or dangerous situation.

The fifth way we can show appreciation and encouragement is to show

solidarity. In other words, letting someone know that they are not alone,

especially after they've shared with you some of their innermost

thoughts and shown vulnerability.

Here are three sentence structures you can use to show solidarity.

I know it wasn't easy to say this.

Thank you for trusting me and sharing this with me. Number two,

I'm so glad we can share this moment together, and number three,

I'm grateful we can talk about this with each other.

If you have a son or daughter,

imagine your child is experiencing some difficulty learning a new subject at

school,

your child opens up to you and lets you know how she's really been

feeling as part of your response in appreciating their openness

and showing solidarity, you could say, I know it wasn't easy to talk about this.

Thank you for trusting me and sharing with me how you're feeling about this

class. And now number six on our list,

reveal what you admire the most.

Sometimes we can be our own worst critics,

and that's exactly why eye-opening compliments can resonate

so deeply. Whether you're aiming to show appreciation,

encouraging someone, or simply complimenting a friend,

you can do that by sharing what you admire most about someone.

And here are three sentence structures that can help.

Number one x a particular situation could not have been

easy. I admire your courage and confidence. Number two,

not everyone can X highlight a particular situation or

action, and I appreciate that you Y,

what does that person do that you admire? And number three,

I admire your X.

Highlight a quality or characteristic because,

and then explain why. For example,

imagine you have a team member who's really struggling at the moment,

maybe even feeling a bit discouraged,

but you truly admire this team member and you want them to know.

You could do that by saying not everyone can understand

another's perspective.

I appreciate that you're so empathetic in this lesson today.

You've learned 21 sentence structures you can use to express

genuine appreciation in English.

If you want to spend a little bit more time reviewing these carefully and

thinking about how you can use these sentence structures,

I recommend you visit this lesson at the Speak Confident English website where

I've provided all these examples in writing. With that in mind,

I'd love for you to practice choose two or three of the sentence structures

you've learned today and write down genuine words of encouragement or

appreciation for someone you know. If you're concerned about accuracy,

you can always share your examples with me.

The best place to do that is directly in the comments below.

If you found today's lesson helpful to you, as always, I would love to know.

You can tell me simply by giving this lesson a thumbs up here on YouTube or

sharing a comment down below. Thank you so much for joining me,

and I look forward to seeing you next time.