When should you use “gratidão”? Its use does not replace the familiar “obrigado”.

Anyone who is less familiar with any language—in our case, the Portuguese language—may find it strange to hear that a language is a living organism. Without wishing to resort to a cliché, yes, that is exactly what it is. As long as there are speakers of a language, the language, its dictionary, and its vocabulary are fed and modified because those same speakers communicate with one another. That is why we have dead languages (Latin and Greek, the classics of the past), because the civilizations that communicated in those languages came to communicate using Italian, French, Portuguese, Spanish and Romanian, while Classical Greek was also replaced by Modern Greek.

Is that clear?

I want to resume our conversation through this channel on the website by explaining when and why we use “gratidão” and “obrigado” or “obrigada”.

According to the electronic edition of the Houaiss Dictionary, gratidão is a feminine noun and expresses the quality of someone who is grateful; or a person’s recognition of someone who has provided a benefit, assistance, or favor; it is an expression of thanks. Obrigado(a), on the other hand, according to the same source, is an adjective that, in one of its meanings, expresses the feeling of being indebted for a favor or kindness; thankful, grateful (also used with a certain interjectional value in originally elliptical constructions). Examples: – Ficamos-lhe obrigados por tantas gentilezas. – A minha mulher vai bem, obrigado. – Que lindas flores! Obrigada, meu querido.

When we look more deeply into gratidão, its etymology leads us to ter gratidão—to have gratitude toward something or someone. Therefore, using it as we currently see on social networks, notes, letters, conversations, audio recordings and videos is not correct; gratidão does not replace our beloved “obrigado(a)”. The word has mistakenly come to be interpreted as obligation, duty. No. That is not the correct interpretation to give to the expression of gratitude (here, yes) toward someone who does or has done us a favor.

Even more objectionable, from my point of view, is replacing it with “valeu”. Try returning to the use of “obrigado” whenever you are grateful to someone. From a cup of coffee or a glass of water to a seat on public transportation, for example, be grateful. With a simple “Obrigado!”.

😉