ENGLISH
REFERENCE

grateful

adj.
B1 Intermediate Oxford US //ˈɡɹeɪtfəɫ// UK //ɡɹˈeɪtfəl// grate·ful Archaic General-service

adj. feeling or showing thanks because someone has done something kind for you or given you something. You use this to express that you appreciate a person's help.

adj. feeling or showing an appreciation of kindness; thankful. Often used in formal correspondence to acknowledge a favour or service.


SIMPLE

I am very grateful for your help today.

CONTEXTUAL

She was extremely grateful to the stranger who found her lost wallet and returned it intact.

COMPLEX

While the scholarship recipients were immensely grateful for the financial support, many also noted that the mentorship component proved equally vital to their academic success.

Synonyms
Antonyms
Origin

From grate (“(obsolete) serving to gratify, agreeable, pleasing; grateful, thankful”) + -ful (suffix forming adjectives with the sense of tending to have or thoroughly having a quality). Grate is a learned borrowing from Latin grātus (“agreeable, pleasing; beloved, dear; grateful, thankful”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *gʷerH- (“to express approval, praise; to elevate”).

Usage

Typically followed by the preposition 'for' when referring to a thing, or 'to' when referring to a person.

Pitfall

I am grateful of your helpI am grateful for your helpGrateful takes the preposition 'for' to indicate the reason for the thanks; 'of' is a common error influenced by words like 'appreciative'.

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