Thank You in Advance!
zhenlijiang
March 16, 2010, 11:42 AM posted in I Have a QuestionSome time ago Xiaophil asked about how to say "Thank(ing) you in advance!" in Chinese (just where I can't recall). We say this in closing our question or request for help, both to ask for responses and to acknowledge that whoever would come up to offer answers will be taking the time and trouble to do so.
I believe Xiaophil asked if it would be good to say 首先感谢你们 for that, and a native speaker--don't know if he/she is still around--had said yes that was good.
I guess I've always felt unsure about that though, as it doesn't seem that 首先 is something you ever close with, seems that you only ever use it in an opener. 首先 doesn't seem to say "in advance". I ran searches with 首先感谢你们 and found--people opening their comments and posts with it. Haven't yet come across anyone signing off with it. This seems to confirm my suspicions.
So ... to express this Thank(ing) you in advance! in Chinese, it seems good to simply add a 谢谢 at the end of our request for help. Is this right?
Or is there a more apt way to say it? How about in formal situations, when it's to close a business or official letter?
Or am I just completely off here?
Hope you don't mind I did this Xiaophil.
zhenlijiang
Thank you as always Changye.
又一次要谢谢你长夜！ (is that right?)
So 首先感谢你们 is "First I'd like to thank you all".
xiaophil
March 16, 2010, 02:42 PMI don't mind at all. I must confess, I have been a bit troubled by that translation. I have used it several times, and nobody has mentioned anything, but perhaps they are just being polite.
zhenlijiang
Mm people do tend to be polite around here (mostly). I also try to be (mostly).
zhenlijiang
March 16, 2010, 04:51 PMThank you as always Changye.
又一次要谢谢你长夜！ (is that right?)
So 首先感谢你们 is "First I'd like to thank you all".
zhenlijiang
March 16, 2010, 04:54 PMMm people do tend to be polite around here (mostly). I also try to be (mostly).
zhenlijiang
March 16, 2010, 05:15 PMAh I see this is the problem with the "disappearing Replies".
It's very annoying--CPod please fix asap! 提前感谢
hey, got to use it right away! （＾－＾）
Changye thank you as always.
又一次要谢谢你长夜！ (is that right?)
So 首先感谢你们 is First I'd like to thank you all.
Xiaophil glad you're cool with my question. Yeah people do tend to be pretty polite around here (mostly) don't they. I like polite, but personally wish sometimes there was more friendly interest and good-natured meddling and questioning too.
changye
March 16, 2010, 11:27 AMI would just say “谢谢”. If you want to say more specifically, you can also say “提前感谢”, and I suspect that it might be a literal translation of the English phrase "Thank you in advance".