Grateful for means thankful for something. The person you're thankful to follows to: I'm grateful to you for your help. The word sounds warmer and more serious than a simple thank you. In formal letters it's used to make polite requests: I would be grateful if you could…
Want to remember grateful for?
Write a sentence — we'll show the mistakes right away and suggest how to say it more naturally.
The check is taking longer than usual. Your feedback will appear here automatically.
be grateful (to + person) for + noun/-ing; be grateful that + clause; I would be grateful if you could + verb
- I'm really grateful to my coach for believing in me.
- We were grateful for the free coffee during the long night shift.
- I would be grateful if you could send me the timetable by Friday.
What changed
First versionI'm grateful to you for help me with the move.
RevisionI'm grateful to you for helping me with the move.
After the preposition for, a verb always takes -ing: for helping. The base form help slips in by habit, as after to in I want to help. You can also use a noun: grateful to you for your help. Help was replaced with helping.
Grateful to you means thankful to you for something specific. Grateful for you is something else: “I'm glad you're in my life”. People say it to those close to them: I'm so grateful for you. Mix up the prepositions in an email to a colleague, and you'll sound unexpectedly personal.
Your turn
I'm grateful to my colleagues ___ covering my shifts while I was ill.
Show the answer
for — The colleagues are already named with to, so next comes the reason for the thanks, and that is introduced with for. To doesn't fit before covering.
Write about someone you're grateful to. Name the person and say exactly what for.
I'm grateful to my first English teacher for making grammar feel easy.
Learn to use new words without mistakes
Write phrases with the words you are learning. LetsWords shows mistakes in usage and grammar, suggests corrections and explains them, and review helps the words stick.