Responding to gratitude in Spanish

Hello! And welcome to Your Daily Pinch of Spanish! Today I want to tell you about responding to gratitude in Spanish.

If you've read the previous lesson on expressing gratitude then you must already know some ways to express your gratitude, but when a person thanks you, how do you respond?

I'll show you some expressions you can use to respond to someone's gratitude.

As usual, I've written a pronunciation guide in parenthesis. For more on Spanish pronunciation, you can check out the page I created for it. (*Update: I will remake this page soon. I had to delete the old website, and so this page doesn't exist anymore for the time being.)

To see the previous lesson on how to express gratitude, click here.

Let's get right to it!

- De nada - (deh nah-dah) You're welcome

This is the most common, and most simple way to reply. 'De nada.' Equivalent to the English 'You're welcome.' Used in any setting, both casual and formal.

- No tienes que agradecérmelo - (Noh tee-eh-nes keh ah-grah-deh-ser-meh-loh) You don't have to thank me

A variation can be 'No me lo agradezcas' which translates to 'Don't thank me.'

- Para eso estoy - (pah-rah-eh-soh ehs-toy) That's what I'm here for

A more casual variation for this, and I hear it often here in Puerto Rico, can be 'Para eso estamos' which translates to 'That's what we're here for.' I think this variation is used more by the men here, though.

- Gracias a ti - (grah-see-ahs ah tee) Thank you 

When you want to return the gratitude, this is the one to use. Just like in English you would return the thank you and stress the word 'you'.

- A la orden - (Ah lah ore-den) At your service (literally translates to 'at your order')

A variation is 'Estoy a tus órdenes' I'm at your service. (Literally it translates to 'I'm at your orders'.) You'll hear it more often when you have, for example, thanked an employee in a store for doing you a favor. They're doing their job, so they'll reply 'A la orden' or 'Estoy a tus órdenes'. You'll also hear it like this 'A tus órdenes.' This one is also in the same line as 'Para eso estoy' and 'Para eso estamos.'

- No lo menciones - (Noh loh men-see-oh-nes) Don't mention it

This reply isn't too common. A variation of this one is 'Ni lo menciones', which translates to 'Don't even mention it.' Use it when you need to stress it. I would say 'no lo menciones' is the one you will hear the less.

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This is it for today! You have six expressions now that you can use when you want to reply to someone's expression of gratitude. I hope you have enjoyed this little lesson, and as always, that you found it useful. If you have any doubt or curiosity that you want to clear, I'm here for you. You can contact me on my Twitter page or my Facebook Page. Don't be shy!

Until next time!