TRANSCRIPT OF THE ABOVE VIDEO: 'The Hidden Meaning Behind 'Thanks A Lot' and What To Say Instead - English Speaking Skills Lesson'

Hi everyone, its Nicole here, and I just wanted to point something out and maybe make something clearer for all of you.

In a lot of the comments recently, people have been writing, you know, thanks, or thanks very much, or thank you, or I appreciate it, things like that.

But, one particular expression that I've been seeing over and over again has been “Thanks a lot”.

And I know that at school people learn “Thanks a lot” and believe that the meaning is thank you very much, but the reality is that it isn't that, it doesn't mean thank you very much at all.

Especially for a native speaker, you know, if a native speaker hears you say thanks a lot, they won't take that positively.

Thanks a lot actually has a hidden meaning behind it, a little bit of a negative meaning, I suppose, so you could actually offend someone, or upset someone if you say thanks a lot, when that's not your intention at all, you know, you just want to say thank you very much, and you're happy, and you're expressing that thanks.

So, look, if you say thanks a lot, for a native speaker, the underlying meaning of that, the hidden meaning of that is a little bit sarcastic, I suppose, you know, if you said thanks a lot, it really means ‘oh great, oh look, you've made such a mistake here’, or ‘I'm not really happy with what you've done' or what you've said’.

So, that's the meaning behind thanks a lot. It's like you're rolling your eyes. Thanks a lot.

And instead of really having the meaning of thank you very much, it's doing the opposite. You know, it's actually saying ‘I'm not saying thank you, you didn't help me at all’ or ‘oh, you've actually made the situation worse’. That's the meaning of thanks a lot.

So, this is just a quick announcement, I suppose, a quick word of warning to say if you want to say thank you very much, and you want to express your thanks to a person, you know, genuinely you want to say thank you, maybe don't use thanks a lot because if they're a native speaker, they will understand that differently to you and they will think this person is very ungrateful, you know, they're not even saying thank you, they're saying the opposite, they're saying no, I don't thank you.

Um, so yeah, I hope that's an interesting little topic for you and one that you will remember the next time that you write thank you.

Obviously, if you say thanks a lot we can hear in your voice whether you're happy or whether you're sarcastic, so it's easier to understand the difference the meaning behind it there. But, if you're writing, you don't have that background, so maybe avoid thanks a lot in your writing from now on and instead say thank you so much, or thanks so much, or thanks very much, or thanks, thanks heaps, or thanks a million, or a million thanks, or I really appreciate it. There’s some alternatives.

Anyway, I hope that has helped, no more ‘thanks a lot’. Have a great day. Bye.