{"id":25132,"date":"2023-04-14T08:05:26","date_gmt":"2023-04-14T08:05:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/linguaholic.com\/linguablog\/?p=25132"},"modified":"2023-05-02T15:34:33","modified_gmt":"2023-05-02T15:34:33","slug":"greatful-or-grateful","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/linguaholic.com\/linguablog\/greatful-or-grateful\/","title":{"rendered":"Greatful or Grateful \u2014 Which Is Right?"},"content":{"rendered":"<style>img#mv-trellis-img-1::before{padding-top:150%; }img#mv-trellis-img-1{display:block;}<\/style><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">There are many things which we should all be thankful for in our lives. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">You may wish to say <\/span>thank you for the scholarship<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, thank you for raising me, or thank you for the gift.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Thinking about the things that we are thankful for can make us feel happy, glad, lucky, and greatful! &hellip;or was it grateful?<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It&rsquo;s easy to mix up two words that sound the same, but let&rsquo;s set the record straight once and for all!<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2><b>Is it &ldquo;greatful&rdquo; or &ldquo;grateful&rdquo;?<\/b><\/h2>\n<p><b>The correct spelling of the word is &ldquo;grateful&rdquo;, meaning to be appreciative of an act or something received. It is similar to the word &ldquo;gratitude&rdquo;, which may be helpful in remembering the proper spelling. The common misspelling &ldquo;greatful&rdquo; is not a real word, so it should not be used in any context.&nbsp;<\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I&rsquo;m &ldquo;grateful&rdquo; that spell-check detects the incorrect word &ldquo;greatful&rdquo;, because it is a very common mistake to make!<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Jokes aside, if you&rsquo;re using online software such as Google Docs or Microsoft Word, you should see a squiggly red underline any time you type the word &ldquo;greatful&rdquo;. That&rsquo;s because &ldquo;greatful&rdquo; is not a real word!<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2><b>What does grateful mean?<\/b><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Grateful is an adjective, which is a word used to describe a noun.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It can be used right before a noun, as in &ldquo;a grateful person&rdquo; or as a subject complement like in &ldquo;I am grateful for what you&rsquo;ve done.&rdquo;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">We can express &ldquo;grateful&rdquo; in its comparative form by using &ldquo;more grateful&rdquo; and &ldquo;most grateful&rdquo; in its superlative form.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It means that someone is thankful or appreciative of something that someone else did for them, or something they received from another person. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/linguaholic.com\/linguablog\/thank-you-for-the-heads-up\/\">&ldquo;Thank you for the heads up!&rdquo;<\/a><\/strong><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> means the same thing as &ldquo;I&rsquo;m grateful for the heads up!&rdquo;.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Basically, if someone helped you out or gave you something, you should feel &ldquo;grateful&rdquo; toward them and say thank you! They will appreciate the sentiment.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">They may be a bit less appreciative if you use the wrong spelling, however. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Especially in a business setting, you want to make sure that you get the spelling correct!<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Spelling words correctly can make your writing more profound and professional, while random misspellings could make us look irresponsible and careless.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2><b>Is greatful a word?<\/b><\/h2>\n<p>&ldquo;Greatful&rdquo; is a common misspelling of the correct form &ldquo;grateful&rdquo;. &ldquo;Greatful&rdquo; is not a real word at all, <span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">and it does not exist in the English lexicon.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Most, if not all, native speakers know this fact like the back of their hand. So, even if people can understand what you really mean by &ldquo;greatful,&rdquo; using it in the real world is never advised.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The word &ldquo;great&rdquo; is an extremely common word in the English language, which is perhaps where the confusion comes in.&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">&ldquo;Great&rdquo; is an adjective that means something is very good. It is often used to describe a good emotion or feeling.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Unlike &ldquo;grateful,&rdquo; the rules change when we talk about the adjective &ldquo;great.&rdquo; We can intensify the meaning of &ldquo;great&rdquo; by using &ldquo;greater&rdquo; in its comparative form and &ldquo;greatest&rdquo; in the superlative.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Here are some example sentences for &ldquo;great&rdquo;:<\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"content-box-grey\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">&ldquo;I&rsquo;m feeling <\/span><b>great<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> today, I think I&rsquo;ll go to the gym after work!&rdquo;<\/span><\/div>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<div class=\"content-box-grey\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">&ldquo;June is a <\/span><b>great<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> month to get married because the weather is nice.&rdquo;<\/span><\/div>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It can also mean that something is big, mighty, or powerful&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Examples:<\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"content-box-grey\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">&ldquo;There is a <\/span><b>great<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> evil in that house, you shouldn&rsquo;t go near it!&rdquo;<\/span><\/div>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<div class=\"content-box-grey\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">&ldquo;It is a <\/span><b>great<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> burden to pay for our daughter&rsquo;s schooling, but it&rsquo;s important to us.&rdquo;<\/span><\/div>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2><b>Homophones: great and grate<\/b><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">You will still see the word &ldquo;greatful&rdquo; plastered all over message boards and online video comments, despite that spelling being incorrect.&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">That is because &ldquo;grate&rdquo; and &ldquo;great&rdquo; are homophones, which many people struggle with. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Homophones are two words that sound exactly the same, but are spelled differently.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">To make things easier, homophones are those words that sound right to your ears but look wrong in your eyes. These words often come in pairs.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">People often mix up the spellings of homophones because the words sound the same in our heads.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">No matter how old we get, we can easily get tricked when we apply what we know about pronunciation in writing.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">To be fair, using proper and correct English all the time is never easy. But, we cannot be too complacent either because it can make or break relationships, especially in business.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Messing word spellings up can have serious consequences inmedical and legal contexts, for instance. Therefore, people working in these fields need to be extra cautious.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Say, you want to use the word &ldquo;heroin&rdquo; but instead you spelled it as &ldquo;heroine.&rdquo;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> Just imagine how that extra &ldquo;e&rdquo; could actually blow your diagnosis up if you&rsquo;re a doctor.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In law, &ldquo;deceased&rdquo; and &ldquo;desist&rdquo; are also tricky homophones that could make anyone look like a bad drafter when interchanged.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Other homophones include:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Weather and whether<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Plane and plain<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">For and four<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Sell and cell<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Hear and here<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">As you can see, these are common words which are read and pronounced in the same way, but have entirely different meanings<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">&ndash; spellings too.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">When you have words that are spelled the same way but don&rsquo;t necessarily sound or mean the same, you are also dealing with &ldquo;homographs.&rdquo;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">&ldquo;Fine&rdquo; which means &ldquo;okay,&rdquo; and &ldquo;fine&rdquo; which means &ldquo;penalty&rdquo; are homographic in nature. We also have to be careful when using such kinds of words.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">To avoid using the wrong version of a homophone, learning the etymology of words (where the parts of words came from) can help us differentiate between the words according to their spelling.&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Let&rsquo;s take a look at the key word of this article: grateful!<\/span><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/linguaholic.com\/linguablog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/Greatful-vs.-Grateful-Pinterest-Pin.jpg\"><noscript><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-25167\" src=\"https:\/\/linguaholic.com\/linguablog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/Greatful-vs.-Grateful-Pinterest-Pin.jpg\" alt=\"Greatful vs. Grateful Pinterest Pin\" width=\"1000\" height=\"1500\" data-pin-media=\"https:\/\/linguaholic.com\/linguablog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/Greatful-vs.-Grateful-Pinterest-Pin.jpg\"><\/noscript><img loading=\"eager\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-25167 eager-load\" src=\"data:image\/svg+xml,%3Csvg%20xmlns='http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg'%20viewBox='0%200%201000%201500'%3E%3Crect%20width='1000'%20height='1500'%20style='fill:%23e3e3e3'\/%3E%3C\/svg%3E\" alt=\"Greatful vs. Grateful Pinterest Pin\" width=\"1000\" height=\"1500\" data-pin-media=\"https:\/\/linguaholic.com\/linguablog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/Greatful-vs.-Grateful-Pinterest-Pin.jpg\" id=\"mv-trellis-img-1\" data-src=\"https:\/\/linguaholic.com\/linguablog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/Greatful-vs.-Grateful-Pinterest-Pin.jpg\" data-svg=\"1\" data-trellis-processed=\"1\"><\/a><br>\n&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2><b>The etymology of grateful<\/b><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The origin of the word &ldquo;grateful&rdquo; comes from the Latin word &ldquo;gratus&rdquo;, meaning &ldquo;pleasing or agreeable&rdquo;.&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">From gratus, the adjective &ldquo;grate&rdquo; was formed, which also meant &ldquo;pleasing&rdquo;. (Note: this usage of &ldquo;grate&rdquo; is outdated, and is no longer used in this way.)<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">During the mid-15<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">th<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> century, the suffix &ldquo;-ful&rdquo; was added on, giving us our current word &ldquo;grateful&rdquo; which is still commonly used today!<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Related vocabulary of grateful:<\/span><\/p>\n<ol>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> Grateful becomes a noun with the addition of &ldquo;-ness&rdquo;, giving us &ldquo;gratefulness&rdquo;.&nbsp;<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<div class=\"content-box-grey\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">&ldquo;My <\/span><b>gratefulness<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> to you knows no bounds, you saved my life!&rdquo;<\/span><\/div>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<ol start=\"2\">\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> Using the superlative gives us &ldquo;most grateful&rdquo;, as in &ldquo;extremely grateful&rdquo;.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<div class=\"content-box-grey\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">&ldquo;I am <\/span><b>most grateful<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> to him for making me such a wonderful dinner.&rdquo;<\/span><\/div>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<ol start=\"3\">\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> As a comparative, we can say that someone is &ldquo;more grateful&rdquo; than others.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<div class=\"content-box-grey\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">&ldquo;You are <\/span><b>more grateful<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> than your brother. He hated all of his Christmas presents.&rdquo;<\/span><\/div>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<ol start=\"4\">\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> Using the same prefix &ldquo;grat-&rdquo;, we get the word &ldquo;gratitude&rdquo;. This is a similar word which means thanks or thankfulness.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<div class=\"content-box-grey\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">&ldquo;You have my <\/span><b>gratitude<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> for rescuing my sister.&rdquo;<\/span><\/div>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Speaking of thanks, here&rsquo;s another common mistake people make when using the word &ldquo;grateful&rdquo;.&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2><b>Grateful vs thankful &ndash; Differences<\/b><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">While &ldquo;thankful&rdquo; is often used as a synonym for &ldquo;grateful&rdquo;, the words are slightly different in meaning.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Gratefulness describes the feeling of appreciating something that someone else did for you. <\/span><\/p>\n<p>This does not include things like luck, things you worked hard for, or things you did yourself.<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">You can also use it for potential situations which have not yet happened, such as &ldquo;<\/span><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/linguaholic.com\/linguablog\/i-would-be-grateful-synonyms-alternatives\/\">I would be grateful<\/a><\/strong><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> if you replied by Friday.&rdquo;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Thankfulness can describe the feeling of everything listed above. You can be thankful toward yourself, other people, situations, luck, and anything else you can think of.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It&rsquo;s a bit of a situation like &ldquo;a square is a rectangle but a rectangle is not a square&rdquo;.&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">To put it simply: you can only be grateful toward other people, but you can be thankful toward anything, including yourself.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Here are some examples of ways each can be used in a sentence.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h3><b>Grateful in a sentence examples [actions]<\/b><\/h3>\n<div class=\"content-box-grey\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">&ldquo;I&rsquo;m so <\/span><b>grateful<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> that you could watch my son last Friday night!&rdquo;<\/span><\/div>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<div class=\"content-box-grey\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">&ldquo;She&rsquo;s very <\/span><b>grateful<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> that you&rsquo;re helping her with her rent this month.&rdquo;<\/span><\/div>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<div class=\"content-box-grey\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">&ldquo;You should be <\/span><b>grateful<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> that your son cleans his room.&rdquo;<\/span><\/div>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<div class=\"content-box-grey\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">&ldquo;I would be <\/span><b>grateful<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> if you did the laundry on Thursday.&rdquo;<\/span><\/div>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h3><b>Grateful in a sentence examples [gifts]<\/b><\/h3>\n<div class=\"content-box-grey\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">&ldquo;The flowers you sent me are so beautiful! I feel so <\/span><b>grateful<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.&rdquo;<\/span><\/div>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<div class=\"content-box-grey\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">&ldquo;I&rsquo;m <\/span><b>grateful<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> for the gift card! This will help me buy groceries.&rdquo;<\/span><\/div>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<div class=\"content-box-grey\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">&ldquo;My son is very <\/span><b>grateful<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> for the games you gave him for his birthday.&rdquo;<\/span><\/div>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<div class=\"content-box-grey\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">&ldquo;Thank you for your donation. We are <\/span><b>grateful<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> for your gift.&rdquo;<\/span><\/div>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h3><b>Thankful in a sentence examples<\/b><\/h3>\n<div class=\"content-box-grey\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">&ldquo;I&rsquo;m <\/span><b>thankful<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> for the food that I can eat every day.&rdquo;<\/span><\/div>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<div class=\"content-box-grey\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">&ldquo;I&rsquo;m so <\/span><b>thankful<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> I found this apartment, it&rsquo;s so close to my workplace!&rdquo;<\/span><\/div>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<div class=\"content-box-grey\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">&ldquo;You really helped me out by driving me to work, I&rsquo;m so <\/span><b>thankful<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.&rdquo;<\/span><\/div>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<div class=\"content-box-grey\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">&ldquo;You should be <\/span><b>thankful<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> for that expensive birthday present.&rdquo;<\/span><\/div>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Here&rsquo;s a check-in. When you buy a new camera and it works very well, are you &ldquo;grateful for&rdquo; the camera? Or are you &ldquo;thankful for&rdquo; the camera?<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Answer: You are &ldquo;thankful for&rdquo; the camera, because you bought it for yourself. There is no-one to be grateful to, so the feeling is &ldquo;thankfulness&rdquo;.&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Here&rsquo;s another tricky bit of grammar that is associated with being grateful: &ldquo;for&rdquo; and &ldquo;to&rdquo;.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2><b>Grateful for vs grateful to<\/b><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Another common question with the word &ldquo;grateful&rdquo; is whether to use &ldquo;for&rdquo; or &ldquo;to&rdquo; afterwards.&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The answer depends on the subject of the speaker&rsquo;s gratitude. Are you thankful to the person, or are you thankful for the action that they took?<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">You don&rsquo;t need to be a master of <\/span><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/linguaholic.com\/linguablog\/difference-between-grammar-and-syntax\/\">grammar and syntax<\/a><\/strong><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> to remember the difference, just remember two short rules:<\/span><\/p>\n<ol>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> You can be grateful &ldquo;to&rdquo; <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">a person<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> for doing something or giving something to you.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> You can be grateful &ldquo;for&rdquo; <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">an act<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> that someone did for you, or for their gift.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Here&rsquo;s a check-in: If <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">someone says you are beautiful<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, are you &ldquo;grateful to&rdquo; their comment, or &ldquo;grateful for&rdquo; their comment?<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Answer: You are &ldquo;grateful for&rdquo; their comment, because they are giving you a compliment (like a gift)!<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">You can check out our full article on <\/span><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/linguaholic.com\/linguablog\/grateful-to-vs-grateful-for-difference\/\">&ldquo;grateful to&rdquo; vs &ldquo;grateful for&rdquo;<\/a><\/strong><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> for more examples, as this is a tricky subject!<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">There are many other ways to use the word &ldquo;grateful&rdquo;, which means that there are also many incorrect ways of using it. Let&rsquo;s look at some more!<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2><b>Incorrect usages of &ldquo;grateful&rdquo; [Examples]<\/b><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The word &ldquo;grateful&rdquo; should only be used when talking about someone&rsquo;s help or item that was given to you. <\/span><\/p>\n<p>However, many people incorrectly use it when they are talking about being thankful in general.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Here are some examples of some incorrect sentences containing &ldquo;grateful&rdquo;.<\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"content-box-grey\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Example 1: &ldquo;I&rsquo;m so <\/span><b>grateful<\/b> <span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">that I found a good deal on this computer!&rdquo;&nbsp;<\/span><\/div>\n<p>&nbsp;<br>\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This is incorrect because the speaker was the one who found the good deal, not anyone else. They have no third party to be grateful towards.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Correction: &ldquo;I&rsquo;m so <\/span><b>thankful<\/b> <span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">that I found a good deal on this computer!&rdquo;<\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"content-box-grey\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Example 2: &ldquo;I won the lottery!! I&rsquo;m so <\/span><b>grateful<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">!&rdquo;<\/span><\/div>\n<p>&nbsp;<br>\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Grateful cannot be used for benefits from luck or chance, because there is no third party to be grateful towards.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Correction: &ldquo;I won the lottery!! I&rsquo;m so <\/span><b>lucky<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">!&rdquo;<\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"content-box-grey\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Example 3: &ldquo;I&rsquo;m so <\/span><b>grateful<\/b> <span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I started saving when I was young. Now I can retire in peace.&rdquo;<\/span><\/div>\n<p>&nbsp;<br>\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">When talking about the benefits of something you did yourself, you should not use grateful because you are not a third party. You cannot be grateful for yourself.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Correction: &ldquo;I&rsquo;m so <\/span><b>glad<\/b> <span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I started saving when I was young. Now I can retire in peace.&rdquo;<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Now you know what not to do when using the word &ldquo;grateful&rdquo;! Still not satisfied? <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">There are many other ways to express your thanks and gratitude, so check out a few others before you go.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2><b>Synonyms for grateful<\/b><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Synonyms are words that bear similar meanings. When we say &ldquo;similar,&rdquo; it means the meanings can either be the same or at least nearly the same.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">They can differ in emphasis, collocation, and level of formality. They can also be appropriately or inappropriately used in certain contexts.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">There are &ldquo;strict&rdquo; and &ldquo;loose&rdquo; synonyms in English. Strict synonyms are those we can use to directly replace a word in any given context without damaging style and diction, such as &ldquo;glad&rdquo; and &ldquo;happy.&rdquo;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Meanwhile, loose synonyms are those that are only applicable in certain contexts but are not interchangeable in all contexts, just like &ldquo;find&rdquo; and &ldquo;discover.&rdquo;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">If you&rsquo;re looking for other ways to say thanks, here are similar words to &ldquo;grateful&rdquo; which can also be used.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Grateful synonyms:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Thankful<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\">Appreciative<\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\">Appreciatory<\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\">Indebted<\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\">Obliged<\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\">Glad<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Here are some example sentences for all of these synonyms of grateful:<br>\n&nbsp;<br>\n[table id=60 \/]\n&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">No matter which word you go with, you can be sure that your meaning, &ldquo;thank you&rdquo;, will be clear to the listener.&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Now go out there and show your gratefulness to the world, and thanks for sticking around! And if you would like to have a look at some more grammar pet peeves and interesting spellings of words, here are a couple of suggestions for you:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/linguaholic.com\/linguablog\/gray-or-grey\/\">Gray vs. Grey<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/linguaholic.com\/linguablog\/et-als-vs-et-al-in-academic-writing\/\">Et al.&rsquo;s vs. et al.<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/linguaholic.com\/linguablog\/amature-vs-amateur-difference\/\">Amature vs. Amateur<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/linguaholic.com\/linguablog\/mayhap-vs-mayhaps\/\">Mayhap vs. Mayhaps<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/linguaholic.com\/linguablog\/wholistic-vs-holistic-difference\/\">Wholistic vs. holistic<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/linguaholic.com\/linguablog\/luckily-for-you-vs-lucky-for-you-difference\/\">Luckily for you vs. lucky for you<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>There are many things which we should all be thankful for in our lives. You may wish to say thank you for the scholarship, thank you for raising me, or thank you for the gift. Thinking about the things that we are thankful for can make us feel happy, glad, lucky, and greatful! &hellip;or was &hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":25166,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"disable-in-feed":false,"article-schema-type":"","disable-critical-css":false,"_convertkit_action_broadcast_export":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[35,1116],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-25132","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-english","category-grammar"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/linguaholic.com\/linguablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25132","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/linguaholic.com\/linguablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/linguaholic.com\/linguablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/linguaholic.com\/linguablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/linguaholic.com\/linguablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25132"}],"version-history":[{"count":39,"href":"https:\/\/linguaholic.com\/linguablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25132\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":25475,"href":"https:\/\/linguaholic.com\/linguablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25132\/revisions\/25475"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/linguaholic.com\/linguablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25166"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/linguaholic.com\/linguablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25132"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/linguaholic.com\/linguablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25132"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/linguaholic.com\/linguablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25132"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}