Bad Wigins wrote:
Nothing is more "absolutely correct" than common usage. Language belongs to the people, not the scribes!
I like this, and i especially appreciate the non-elitist — or even anti-elitist sentiment — underlying it.
Does everyone here remember when teachers used to instruct kids to never end a sentence with a preposition? Now that seems so weird and old fashioned.
Like, instead of saying, “who do i give this to?”, you were supposed to say, “to whom do i give this?”
I’m convinced that much of the fussy, scholarly grammar that was taught a few generations ago, is dead.
As to the original q’n, I agree that “thanks for the help” is elegant, as well as “thanks for helping me”. To be more emphatic, i think “i appreciate you taking the time to help me” is a good option.