Imagine that your French friend Marie just picked you up at the airport in Paris and hosted you in her lovely home for 3 days.
You are grateful and would like to thank her so you say merci when you leave and give her a box full of delicacies from your hometown.
Then you wonder: isn’t’t there a better way to say thank you in French? Merci did feel a bit…short.
While merci is a safe choice in almost all situations and will rarely offend people, it’s not always the best way to thank people in French.
Here are 23 ways to say thank you in French!
Merci – Thank you
Merci is the most common way to say thank you or thanks in French.
You can use it whether you’re talking to your best friend, a seller, a waiter or your boss without any risk of offending anyone.
However, it may be considered a bit cold and short depending on the context.
That’s why it’s often better to expand on the basic merci and use one these common variations:
- Merci beaucoup (thank you very much/ thank you so much)
- Merci d’avance (thank you in advance)
- Non merci (no thank you)
- Merci à tous (thank you all)
Sometimes you may also hear these alternative ways of saying thank you in French:
- Merci bien (thanks a lot)
- Merci infiniment (thank you a million)
- Merci mille fois (thank you a thousand times)
- Un grand merci à (a big thank you to…)
- Merci à (thank you to…)
Be aware that merci bien can be perceived as sarcastic depending on the context so I would recommend you to use merci beaucoup instead.
Merci bien, mais j’ai pas que ça à faire !
Thanks a lot, but I have better things to do!
If you want to sound more formal, simply add monsieur or madame after merci.
You could also use mademoiselle but I wouldn’t recommend you to do so because more and more people consider mademoiselle to be sexist since there is a word for unmarried women but not for unmarried men.
- Merci Monsieur (thank you Sir)
- Merci Madame (thank you Mrs)
If you want to thank a person for something specific, add pour (for) after merci:
- Merci beaucoup pour (thank you very much for…)
- Merci pour votre/ton aide (thank you (formal/informal) for your help)
je vous remercie: I thank you
When you want to thank a group of person or highlight the person you’re saying thank you to, you can use one of the following sentences:
- Je vous remercie (formal I thank you)
- Je te remercie (informal I thank you)
These two sentences are generally considered more formal than a simple merci.
Like with merci, you can also use variations of je vous remercie such as:
- Je vous remercie du fond du coeur (I thank you from the bottom of my heart)
- Je vous remercie par avance (I thank you in advance)
- Je vous remercie de votre attention (I thank you for your attention)
- Je vous remercie pour… (I thank you for…)
Just remember that these 4 ways to say thank you in French are rather formal and mostly used in letters.
Using them in everyday situations or in informal emails or Facebook conversations would be strange.
C’est vraiment gentil de votre part – It’s really kind of you
If someone just offered you a gift or did something nice, you can thank them by saying c’est vraiment gentil de votre part (it’s really kind of you).
As always in French, the votre version is formal while the ta version is informal. That’s because there are two ways to say you in French.
Avec tous mes / nos remerciements – With thanks
Literally “with all my/our thanks”, avec tous mes/nos remerciements is a good choice when writing a formal letter or email or when you’re writing to a group of people you don’t know well.
Remerciez-le / -la de ma part – Thank him/her for me
If you want to ask someone to thank someone else for you, you can use Remerciez-le /la de ma part (thank him/her for me).
If you want to ask someone to thank a group of people, you can say remerciez-les de ma part (thank them for me.)
Merci mille fois
This one is for when you feel extra thankful. It literally means “thank you a thousand times.” Its closest English equivalent would be “thanks a million.”
Alternatively, you could also say mille mercis (literally: a thousand thank yous.)
Merci à toi/ merci à vous
You will mostly hear this French thank you as a reply to someone thanking someone else. Think of it as the equivalent of “No, thank you” when you want to emphasize that you are the one who should be thankful, not the person who just thanked you.
A common equivalent is c’est moi qui vous remercie (literally: it is I who thank you.)
How to answer thank you in French
The most common way to say you’re welcome in French is de rien but there are many alternatives such as:
You can discover other ways to say you are welcome in French in this article.
And you, what’s your favorite way of saying “thank you” in French?
I only speak one language; poor american. I am writing a story wherein I am using French phrases. One of my characters is being criticized but then the person doing so relents. The person under the gun (so to speak) says merci merci Madame, s’il te plait… Is this correct usage?
I am doing what I can online but that is a bit iffy isn’t it?
If your character is deferring to authority then s’il vous plait would be used. This sounds awkward because you are saying, literally, “Thank you, ma’am, please.”
“Merci, on peut y aller.”
Or
“ Autre chose à dire”
But perhaps I am not happy with authority…
Merci Beaucoup!…
This is incredibly useful – I have basic French but learning more polished/more casual alternatives is just what I needed! Thank you very much!
This is very useful for me. I am studying french level B1.4 . Merci beaucoup Monsieur Benjamin Houy.
I was brought up in England, but I have French hereditary. I was taught to always accept a compliment with a smile and a Thank you.
Hi all.
There’s a mistake above:
under the title ” Avec tous mes / nos remerciements ”
we read: ” Literally “with all my/our thanks”, avec tous mes/vos remerciements is a good choice…”
it can’t be ” avec tous mes/vos remerciements ” (my/your), but ” avec tous mes/nos remerciements (my, our)”, as correctly done in the title.
Merci Fred, c’est corrigé.
No prob…
Wow! I’m very happy to be here, this is very useful to me, je vous remercie pour votre aide
When I lived in France, I was told that when someone complimented you on your looks or dress, you NEVERE say Merci! It’s too direct and you are confirming that, yes indeed, you do agree that you look great. Too self-centered. I was told to avoid that by saying “Vous pensez?” or “C’est gentil de votre part.”
I don’t think it has to do with French culture in particular. It’s just that lots of people have a hard time accepting compliments.
I personally don’t see any problem with a simple merci when someone makes a compliment but it’s really a matter of preference.
I honestly would find “vous pensez ?” insulting, as if you were saying the person’s judgement is wrong.
I believe it’s one of those cases where it’s more about the person than the culture.
The best compromise would be to say “merci c’est gentil de votre part”. You accept the compliment and also recognize that the person complimenting you is being kind.
I agree much with you. I’m French and if I am complimented on my looks, I would say ‘Merci!’. Jean may be right in certain cases: if you answer ‘Merci’ too quickly, it would mean that you don’t care about the compliment, “no time to speak about my new looks, etc”. It just depends the way you say Merci, if it comes from the heart, with a smile, or if it sounds quite cold. If I compliment somebody, especially a girl, she would answer “Merci”, and it will be very fine.
Perhaps it is a generational thing. I was brought up in England and we were taught not to say Thank You to a compliment, but “Do you think so?” When I learnt it in French is seemed perfectly natural to say vous pensez. Americans always said Thank You, so I think it is the American influence that has been introduced to the younger generations.
I was born in the 70’s in the Uk and lived there most of my life. I’m of Mauritian decent (french creole), one of my good friends in the UK taught me to say thank you after she paid me a compliment because I didn’t know how to respond, she was of English decent. So. I’m not sure if it’s a generation thing, cultural or even parental thing- which could also be cultural, learned behaviour. Anyhow, I believe it’s a good, pleasant response and the right thing to do.