This is the Business English Podcast, episode 496.
Should you tell a supervisor you appreciate them?
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Hello, Lindsay.
How are you?
Good, Aubrey.
How are you doing today?
How's everything?
Excellent.
I have a question for you.
Yes.
Are you good at telling people you appreciate them?
Oh, geez.
I would say...
Maybe not exactly in those words, but when I give a gift, for example, I think that sometimes could could say it, but without words, if that makes sense.
That's a good point.
If I give them a gift, they know I appreciate them.
I need to be better at this.
And I tell my kids sometimes, I'm like, I appreciate all of the chores you're doing.
I know I don't say it enough.
But it's interesting to think about this in the business context.
We've got a really good question about the verb appreciate.
That really highlights something interesting about US business culture.
Yeah, this is going to get into like a very specific nuance here that I think for our listeners at their level, they are ready for this right.
Absolutely.
Yeah.
So it's interesting Lindsay, would you tell a supervisor or a boss?
Would you say to them I appreciate you, you know, or would you be more likely to say like I appreciate the feedback?
I appreciate and mention specifically what you appreciate.
Probably, you know, nine times out of ten, I'd probably be specific.
I would make sure that I'm pointing out exactly the thing that I appreciate.
Right, because it's just a little too um, like familiar.
Yeah, for for a boss.
I appreciate you, yeah.
Yeah, I've heard this being said.
I think more, maybe more from supervisors towards employees um, in the working world.
But if I'm talking to someone above me, I might Want to be more specific.
Yeah, it's really interesting.
All of the nuance that's there, sort of what's implied about the relationship, about how familiar it is.
We are going to get into all of this today, but we'll first share this great question we got.
This was Kayo, one of our amazing students.
Shout out to Kayo.
And she said I often hear Michelle say on the podcast we're appreciative of you, especially when Lindsay mentions listener comments or five star reviews.
I would be so grateful if you'd make an episode about the usage of appreciate.
If possible, I'd like you to explain the difference between I appreciate and I'm appreciative and how you'd use them.
Oh, so good.
We love it when our questions come from our listeners and they're just very specific like this one.
This is fantastic.
So thank you to Kayo.
Huge thank you.
Yes.
And be sure to hit follow guys right here on Business English.
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Yes, exactly.
So, all right.
So we're going to break this down Aubrey, between the difference between appreciate, like Kyle asked, and appreciative right.
Exactly, right.
So appreciate is the verb.
Let's go into this first and kind of go into some nuances about it.
What we say we appreciate right.
So expressing appreciation of a person is more personal and emotional than appreciation of an action.
So sort of like we were saying you could say to anyone supervisor at work anyone, I appreciate blank and you're sharing the action, what they've done for you.
And that isn't so familiar, right?
Oh, I appreciate the new computer.
Yeah.
Whatever it could be.
I appreciate the feedback.
Yes, but exactly.
Right.
But when Michelle says, as Kayo asked, excuse my voice, she says, we're appreciative of you.
She's expressing a little bit another level of care and emotion for you guys, for our listeners.
Right, Aubrey?
Exactly.
More so than if she said you know, we appreciate the reviews, or even we're appreciative of the reviews.
This is a little less personal, right?
We appreciate you.
And it's true, right?
We are grateful for our listeners and for those reviews.
There's a level of care and being familiar here that's intended.
Yes.
Yes, exactly.
So you should consider it a compliment, right, when you hear that on the podcast.
She's just trying to speak heart to heart to our listeners, right?
Exactly.
So what's interesting is this isn't about grammar, right?
Right.
It's about what is implied about the relationship.
To appreciate a person, to say I appreciate him or I appreciate you implies you care about them personally.
You appreciate them as a person and there's an emotional connection.
Yes, exactly.
I love that.
So what else?
What else do we need to know here?
So I would just say because of that, when referring to, for example, advice given by a boss or a teacher, would usually say I appreciate the advice, instead of like I appreciate you or I appreciate him for giving me advice.
Right.
It's also just a little unclear if we just say I appreciate you.
You appreciate me for what?
Right.
Like I want to know details.
Yeah, exactly.
Exactly.
Or whenever we're sharing something like that, if we stay general, it almost feels insincere.
Whereas if we specifically say what we appreciate, then that feels sincere.
I think it's a good rule of thumb in business.
The more specific we can be, the better.
Right.
So that's that's the rule of thumb right there.
So appreciate something that's better.
Just be more clear.
OK, yeah.
Yeah.
And it's interesting.
We do also use this in the passive versus active voice.
We might say like your feedback is really appreciated or your guidance and support is really appreciated.
So that's this passive.
I mean, I appreciate it, but I'll use it in the passive.
I love it.
All right.
Let's give some examples for our listeners.
Here's one.
I really appreciate your quick response to the client's request.
It helped us finalize the proposal on time.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Versus we probably wouldn't say like I appreciate you for responding or just in general like totally appreciate you and your responsiveness.
Right.
This feels more professional.
It's about the action.
Or you might say we appreciate your continued partnership and look forward to working together on future projects.
Right.
So we're using appreciate about the partnership.
Exactly.
100%.
So what about appreciative, Avery?
How is this different?
Yeah.
So the main difference is this is an adjective and appreciate is a verb.
And then we also have appreciation, which is the noun.
So appreciative is feeling or showing appreciation.
Right.
And we have the same cultural nuance here.
So for example, If we say I'm appreciative of him, this implies that you care about the person.
We're not exactly sure if we're talking about an action.
It's just the person in general, broadly, okay?
Exactly.
So instead for a formal or professional relationship, better to say.
I was appreciative of the advice.
Yes, exactly.
So here's some examples.
I'm really appreciative of the help you gave me during the project, right?
Yes. or after the play, the audience gave an appreciative round of applause.
This does sound a bit more formal, mostly because it's a little less common.
You know, we definitely would understand what you mean.
But when we go, even when Michelle said we're appreciative of the comments, like she is sort of using a less common word there, maybe to emphasize you know how grateful she is for the reviews.
Yep.
Yep.
Yep.
And to answer Kyle's question, you know being more specific is better, because then you're letting your boss know.
I mean, as we're talking to our manager, we're kind of giving them feedback at the same time.
You know what I mean?
And you're letting them know what, you know, what works for you and what doesn't.
Right.
So if we're more specific, it's just better for your relationship with that person in the future.
Okay.
Absolutely.
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Okay, let's dive into a role play, Aubrey.
So we are colleagues and we are debriefing after a meeting with a client.
Fun, fun.
I'll start us out.
Yes.
I really appreciate how you handled the client's feedback.
They felt heard and responded really well.
Oh, thanks.
I think the meeting went well.
I agree.
I'm also appreciative of the support your team gave us during the revisions this week.
Everyone worked so well together.
Oh, that's so great to hear.
Let's make sure to mention everyone's effort in our final report, so they know we appreciate their work.
Nice.
And yeah, it is interesting if you rewrote this and changed it to like.
I appreciate you for how well you handled it.
It really does change the tone.
It's creating this kind of more personal vibe that usually at work, this is how we would say it.
Yeah.
There's only one scenario in which I would say we would color out of the lines here.
Let's say an employee is leaving a company And you are like making some statements about their contribution to the company.
You've done this for us and this and this is so great.
We appreciate you.
Thank you for your dedication to our company.
In that case, that's appropriate because that's more of like a capstone type thing.
Don't you agree, Aubrey?
Yes.
And even I think that could be the case even if they're not leaving, they're still going to be with your company and you, for some reason, are like highlighting their efforts.
It does make a difference if you are specifically stating all of the things that you appreciate, all of these things they're doing, and then sort of sum it up with we appreciate you, because it is known that it's like we appreciate you for all of these things we just mentioned, that you do.
Exactly.
It's not just in isolation.
We appreciate you.
Interesting.
And then there's nothing else.
That's kind of weird, right?
Right.
Yes.
Like we're saying, the less specific it is, the less sincere it seems.
Yes.
I love it.
Wow.
Really nuanced topic today, Aubrey.
Oh my gosh.
The differences, right, between Kayo's native language and English.
This might be a nuanced difference.
There might be something there involving like work hierarchy right happening, that we have cultural hierarchies that we have to think about.
In English and our native language that might be different.
Yeah.
Interesting.
Right.
So the pro tip here is right I appreciate you will be more for very close friends family, whereas at work you should most often say I appreciate and then specifically say the action, what has been done that you appreciate.
Yeah.
More context in general in business is always better.
Definitely.
Just give more context, give more details so you can succeed more in communicating with that person.
All right.
Absolutely.
All right.
Good stuff today, Aubrey.
You have a good rest of your day.
All right.
Awesome.
Thanks, Lindsay.
See you next time.
All right.
Bye.
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