"Grateful" versus "Thankful"

[Tom]

[Alan]

Hi Tom,

Thankful has the suggestion that you are glad that something has happened or indeed has not happened - in other words things have worked out as you had hoped.

Probably one way of understanding thankful is in the word Thanksgiving, which is a word you should ask Amy about. People often say: Thank God! when they express relief say when there has been a terrible accident and it appears no-one has been killed. One of the repeated refrains after the Christian priest has spoken about the blessings in life, is: Thanks be to God. All this of course is a far cry from: thank you/very much. The idea of being grateful is expressing thanks on as it were a humbler more human level.

Alan
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English as a Second Language
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