If you do someone a good turn today, don’t expect a thank you. ‘Cheers’, ‘ta’ or even ‘wicked’ is the more likely response, if a survey is to be believed.

一项调查发现，如果你帮了别人一个忙，别以为他会说“thank you（谢谢你）”，他很可能说cheers（谢谢）、ta（谢了）或wicked（真棒）等词语来表达对你的感谢。

Research among computer users suggests that the traditional expression of gratitude¹（感谢的心情） has fallen by the wayside（半途而废） .

Almost half of those polled said they now use ‘cheers’ more often than ‘thank you’.

Four out of ten said ‘thank you’ sounded too formal - so they used more catchy²（引人注意的，容易记住的） , chatty（饶舌的，非正式的） words such as ‘fab’, ‘lovely’ or ‘wicked’.

A third said they would often just resort to a quick wave instead of saying ‘thank you’.

And 77 percent said that any of the words used to say thanks were irrelevant³（不相干的） , believing a pleasant gesture works just as well.

The poll of 3,000 people was carried out by the online gift store Me to You.

Spokesman Caroline Weaver⁴ said: ‘While the great British public might feel uncomfortable saying thank you these days, they do like to show their gratitude in other ways.

‘Respondents felt it didn’t matter how you thanked someone for their kind actions, as long as you did so in a friendly and polite way.

‘At the end of the day everyone knows that a big smile and some form of acknowledgment is all it takes to show we are grateful.’

According to the survey, two thirds of respondents believed Britain was a ‘rude’ nation and 84 percent think others should make more of an effort to show appreciation⁵.