6 Must-Have Phrases to Express Gratitude in English (Use to reflect and practice gratitude) — Transcript

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1. 0:00Saying thank you is a common way to express gratitude or show
2. 0:04appreciation when someone does something nice for you. But gratitude,
3. 0:09the practice of gratitude,
4. 0:12is so much more than saying thank you.
5. 0:15I'm sure that you've read blog posts or listened to podcasts on the importance
6. 0:20of creating a gratitude practice or maybe even having a gratitude
7. 0:25journal. In fact, inside my Confident Women Community ,
8. 0:29this has become a hot topic of conversation with
9. 0:34regular discussions and exchanges on how to best implement a practice of
10. 0:39gratitude. So as you begin to reflect on the past year,
11. 0:44how can you best express your gratitude in English?
12. 0:48How can you go beyond a simple, thank you. If you don't already know,
13. 0:52I'm Annemarie with Speak Confident English,
14. 0:55everything I do here is designed to help you get the confidence you want for
15. 0:59your life and work in English. In this Confident English lesson,
16. 1:03you're going to learn six different ways to express gratitude in English.
17. 1:08As a result,
18. 1:08you'll have richer word choices you can use to express the depth of
19. 1:13your gratitude.
20. 1:20Before we dive into this and let's explore what gratitude really means.
21. 1:25A simple dictionary definition states that gratitude is the quality of being
22. 1:30thankful. However, as you've likely discovered,
23. 1:34a practice of gratitude is far more profound.
24. 1:38Gratitude is a selfless,
25. 1:41deep appreciation for the things we receive,
26. 1:44whether tangible or intangible.
27. 1:47And a practice of gratitude can help you feel more positive,
28. 1:52build stronger relationships and experience catharsis or the
29. 1:57release of strong emotions.
30. 1:59On top of all of that regularly expressing gratitude allows you to
31. 2:04communicate reminisce about and relish your past
32. 2:09experiences while English speakers do often say thank you to express
33. 2:14their appreciation or gratitude to someone.
34. 2:18We tend to go beyond a simple thank you to express our gratitude
35. 2:23for a past event or experience.
36. 2:26And here are six ways to do that phrase. Number one,
37. 2:30I'm grateful or thankful... Rather than say that you're glad something happened,
38. 2:35you can go a step further and start your sentence with one of these
39. 2:40collocations that begins with I'm grateful.
40. 2:43I'm grateful for I'm grateful to.
41. 2:48I'm grateful that,
42. 2:50and I'm grateful to someone.
43. 2:54Let me give you a couple of clear examples.
44. 2:57If you appreciate someone's past actions toward you,
45. 3:00you could say I'm grateful to my mentor for teaching
46. 3:05me effective strategies for success.
47. 3:07Or if you want to express appreciation for a recent
48. 3:12experience,
49. 3:12you could say I'm grateful to have had this
50. 3:17opportunity. And now phrase number two,
51. 3:20I appreciate just like with I'm grateful we have multiple
52. 3:26collocations using. I appreciate... For example,
53. 3:30I appreciate that.
54. 3:31Or I appreciate the fact that I appreciate followed
55. 3:37by an indirect object, for example, an individual. And I appreciate how,
56. 3:42let me give you a couple of examples.
57. 3:45When you want to show that you appreciate a past experience, you could say,
58. 3:49I appreciate how my years of training got me through the toughest moments of my
59. 3:54career. Not only does the word appreciate express gratitude,
60. 3:59but it also indicates recognition.
61. 4:02You're recognizing the influence of a past experience or recognizing an
62. 4:07individual. And now phrase number three, I feel blessed.
63. 4:12This is an ideal sentence starter when you want to express a deep sense of
64. 4:16gratitude. When we start a sentence with, I feel blessed,
65. 4:20we can follow it with that, to, for, and with. For
66. 4:26example, in your life,
67. 4:27I'm sure there is one person situation or circumstance that you
68. 4:32feel truly deeply grateful for.
69. 4:36And you can express that gratefulness by saying,
70. 4:40I felt blessed for having another opportunity to rebuild my business
71. 4:45phrase. Number four on our list today is I count my blessings.
72. 4:49This is a popular idiom used to recognize all the positive things
73. 4:54that have happened in someone's life. For instance, you might say,
74. 4:59I count my blessings when I think about how lucky I was to get hired
75. 5:04before the recession. In addition to that expression, you might have heard,
76. 5:09I count my blessings twice,
77. 5:11and of course this communicates an even stronger sense of gratitude.
78. 5:16For example,
79. 5:17I count my blessings twice that my daughter was able to graduate despite
80. 5:22the ups and downs she's experienced over the last few years.
81. 5:26Phrase number five for expressing gratitude is I'm fortunate.
82. 5:31Every now and then when we reflect on the past,
83. 5:33we may also have a sense of feeling lucky as well as
84. 5:38thankful. And when we have that sense,
85. 5:42using the words I'm fortunate is an ideal way to express that combination
86. 5:47of feelings. For example, in my situation,
87. 5:50I would say with absolute certainty,
88. 5:53I feel fortunate for having an amazing team.
89. 5:58And now phrase number six,
90. 6:00our last way to express gratefulness in today's Confident English lesson
91. 6:05is I'm indebted.
92. 6:07When you think back on the people in your life who have helped you move forward,
93. 6:12they may have done so with great kindness, empathy,
94. 6:16and generosity.
95. 6:18When you want to express your gratitude for that individual
96. 6:23in a way that also indicates that you want to share that same kindness,
97. 6:28empathy, or generosity with them in the future,
98. 6:32you can use I'm indebted. To do that, we use the structure I'm indebted to...
99. 6:38And then the individual, for example,
100. 6:41I'm indebted to my sister for guiding me through some of the most difficult
101. 6:46moments in my life.
102. 6:47Now that you have six new phrases to fully express your gratitude,
103. 6:51let's finish with three creative ways to put all of this into practice.
104. 6:55Tip number one is to use intensifiers words,
105. 7:00such as forever eternally,
106. 7:03extremely intensify,
107. 7:06the overall sense of gratitude that you want to express. For example,
108. 7:11I'm forever grateful for the kindness and support of my neighbor when our house
109. 7:15was robbed.
110. 7:16Tip number two for putting your gratitude into practice is to create a
111. 7:21gratitude journal. In all the hustle and bustle of our daily lives,
112. 7:25it's easy to lose sight of the things that we're grateful for,
113. 7:29and instead be overwhelmed by the negatives that surround us.
114. 7:34Starting a gratitude journal not only allows you to use this new language,
115. 7:39but also counterbalance those negative impacts.
116. 7:43One common recommendation for implementing a gratitude journal is to set aside
117. 7:48three to five minutes a day,
118. 7:51and simply write down a few things that you feel that sense of gratitude
119. 7:56for. And you can use all of these sentence starters to help you.
120. 8:01In fact, you could have them listed at the top of a page,
121. 8:04so they're easy to reference and they help you think about what you're grateful
122. 8:09for in that moment that you sit down to reflect.
123. 8:13And finally tip number three for how to put gratitude into practice is to write
124. 8:17a note or a letter.
125. 8:19Never underestimate the power of a handwritten note.
126. 8:23The next time you want to show gratitude towards someone,
127. 8:27consider writing them a handwritten note, or if necessary an email.
128. 8:32You'd be surprised how rare this practice is and how
129. 8:36uplifting it can be for the receiver. When you sit down to write that note,
130. 8:40you can use some of these sentence starters to help you express what you're
131. 8:45grateful for. And now to finish this lesson today, I have two questions for you.
132. 8:50So you can immediately practice some of the phrases that you've learned today.
133. 8:55Question one,
134. 8:56which phrases from today's lesson are you most excited to begin using
135. 9:01in your English practice?
136. 9:03Give me an example of one of them and include what you're grateful for.
137. 9:07And question number two, take a moment to reflect on the past year,
138. 9:12what is a past experience or an individual that you're feeling grateful for
139. 9:17and how would you express that?
140. 9:19Choose one of the six phrases you've learned today.
141. 9:22And if you'd like share your example with me in the comments below as
142. 9:27always, if you found today's lesson useful to you, I would love to know.
143. 9:31And you can tell me in one extremely simple way,
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145. 9:38subscribe to this channel.
146. 9:39So you never miss one of my Confident English lessons.
147. 9:42Thank you so much for joining me. And I look forward to seeing you next time.