Thank you in French: say it, decline it, answer it

Thank you in French is merci , and the page below also covers how to say no thanks, how to thank someone in a formal message and how to answer when you are thanked. For the other everyday words, see please and sorry in French and yes and no in French. For longer lists, see common French phrases.

How do you say thank you in French?

You say merci. Larousse’s French-English dictionary lists it as an interjection meaning “thank you”, with the example “as-tu dit merci à la dame ?” for “did you thank the lady?” [1].

You can make it stronger. Larousse gives merci mille fois as “thank you so or very much”, and merci (beaucoup) d’être venu as “thanks (a lot) for coming” [1].

The same entry also holds a noun, un merci. Larousse’s example is “dites-lui un grand merci pour son aide”, “give him a big thank-you” [1].

Is merci beaucoup correct in French?

The Language Portal of Canada says some grammarians consider merci bien and merci beaucoup familiar [4]. In principle, it says, je vous remercie beaucoup is preferable [4].

How do you say thank you in a formal message?

You say je vous remercie (“I thank you”); the Language Portal prefers je vous remercie beaucoup to merci beaucoup [4]. For a letter or email, the Language Portal’s guide to closing formulas gives this model: En vous remerciant à l’avance, je vous prie de recevoir mes salutations distinguées [5].

The same page marks one version as wrong: En vous remerciant à l’avance, recevez mes meilleures salutations. The closing has to be built with je vous prie or nous vous prions [5].

How do you say thank you for your assistance in French?

You say merci de votre aide, “thank you for your help”. That sentence is ours, built on the pattern of the Académie’s example. The Académie française gives the safe pattern: thank someone for what they did of their own accord, as in Merci de nous avoir aidés [6]. Larousse’s example is a thank-you “pour son aide”, for his help [1].

For a formal message, the closing in the section above applies [5].

How do you say thank you for joining us in French?

No source we opened gives a fixed phrase for “joining us”. Two examples come close. Larousse gives merci (beaucoup) d’être venu, “thanks (a lot) for coming” [1]. The Académie française gives Merci d’avoir accepté notre invitation [6].

Je vous remercie d’être venus follows the same pattern as Larousse’s example [1]. That sentence is ours, built from the pattern, not quoted from an entry.

The Académie française also names a trap. It says Merci d’avoir été notre invité is not said, because the thanks only makes sense for something the person did on their own initiative [6].

How do you say no thanks in French?

You say non merci. Larousse gives “voulez-vous du fromage ? — (non) merci, je n’ai pas faim” for “would you like some cheese? — no thank you, I’m not hungry” [1].

How do you say no thanks in French when you want it lighter? The same entry labels merci, très peu pour moi ! as familiar, and translates it “thanks but no thanks!” [1].

How do you answer merci in French?

You answer with je vous en prie, de rien or il n’y a pas de quoi. These are the replies the Office québécois de la langue française lists when someone thanks you [2].

The Language Portal of Canada adds the register. It labels il n’y a pas de quoi as familiar, je vous en prie as careful speech and à votre service as business language [3].

Common mistakes

• Answering merci with bienvenue. The Office québécois de la langue française advises against it and gives de rien, je vous en prie or il n’y a pas de quoi instead [2].
• Thanking for something the person did not choose to do. The Académie française says merci d’avoir été notre invité is not said; thank them for accepting the invitation [6].
• Closing a formal message with “recevez mes meilleures salutations” after “en vous remerciant”. The Language Portal marks that construction as wrong and asks for “je vous prie de recevoir” [5].
• Dropping non when you decline. Larousse’s example is “(non) merci, je n’ai pas faim” [1].
• Trusting a thank-you page from a blog, including this one. Usage notes change. Check each official page’s own date before you rely on it.

Sources