How to say thank you "for" something?

EmmaLouise1
 October 01, 2009 at 04:32 PM posted in General Discussion

Like if you said:

  • "Thank you for my messages" 
  • "Thank you for my present". 

How would you say "for" and where would it go in the sentence? And could you use the same character for a sentence like "I bought him a cake for his birthday"? Or does it depend what kind of sentence structure it is? 

I'm a bit confused :S

It was my 16th birthday today so I'd like to thank my Chinese friends for their gifts and kind wishes properly ^.^ They even wrote me my birthday cards in Chinese which I was dead excited about! ^.^ lol

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mepple
 October 15, 2009 at 01:21 PM

orangina

Thanks for you help

i am very glad to see you message

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orangina
 October 14, 2009 at 07:22 PM

mepple,

In English you would say:

Thanks for the message you sent me.

Thank you for the message.

I got the message you sent me. Thanks!

谢谢你（所有人）的帮助。

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mepple
 October 14, 2009 at 02:01 PM

thank you for you dinner .is it right?

谢谢你的晚餐

thanks for you dinner

thank you to sent message for me

can somebody tell me my english is right ？

谢谢你给我发信息  有人能看看我说的这几句英语是对的吗？

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yapkhs
 October 14, 2009 at 12:48 PM

Yes, i do agree with amandali_counselor and chenhua.

The proper way to say them are shown as below:-

谢谢你的晚饭 (thanks for the dinner)

谢谢你的礼物（thanks for the present) etc.

Regards

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bodawei
 October 13, 2009 at 02:41 PM

@chenhua

哈哈 很久我说错了！ 现在我明白。  今晚上我款待客人了。  

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chenhua
 October 12, 2009 at 07:41 AM

在中文里面，没有“晚饭，谢谢你”的说法，“谢谢你的晚饭”就是“谢谢你请吃饭”，我们比较常说“谢谢款待”

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bodawei
 October 12, 2009 at 07:34 AM

@amanda_counsellor

谢谢你的评论！ 点评可以介绍一下吗？ 这个词我的词典没有。我说晚饭谢谢你因为如果说谢谢你的晚饭有人不一定他的晚饭还是我的晚饭。 

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amandali_counselor
 October 12, 2009 at 07:14 AM

we can’t say "短信，谢谢你(thanks to the SMS)。" we say 谢谢你的短信/谢谢你的礼物/谢谢你的晚饭, at last,谢谢你们的点评（dian3 ping2--comments)。

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bodawei
 October 02, 2009 at 04:03 AM

@sebire

I'll have a go (I love being corrected): I agree that 为 wèi (for) is not used as often as we use 'for' but I think this is one of those occasions where you might actually use 为 wèi:

我买了一个蛋糕作为他的生日礼物。 (I bought him a cake for his birthday.)

As for doodlemonster's original question:

短信，谢谢你 duǎnxìn xièxiè nǐ (thanks for the SMS)

礼物， 谢谢你 lǐwù xièxiè nǐ (thanks for the present)

晚饭，谢谢你 wǎnfàn xièxiè nǐ （thanks for dinner)

等等 (etc.)

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sebire
 October 01, 2009 at 09:54 PM

I think they just don't bother with the for.

谢谢你的礼物。Thank you for your present.

At a guess, I think 我买了蛋糕送给他过生日 is something like "I bought him a cake for his birthday". Maybe someone can confirm?

Anyway, moral of the story is that "for" often just doesn't appear. I think 为 can sometimes mean "for", but I think we say "for" a lot more than the Chinese do.