The Russian language is very expressive due to the large number of prepositions. Of course it is. But even these service parts of speech often cause a lot of questions, which become more difficult the more you think about them. Let us ponder: do we need a comma before “thanks” in the first sentence? Or maybe it's worth highlighting this word with commas on both sides? It would look quite natural. The task is not as simple as it seems.
Greek tracing paper
The etymology of the word “give thanks” is transparent and any native speaker of the Russian language can fully explain it. “To give a blessing” - two beautiful common Slavic words merged into one due to very frequent use. The word-building potential of a word has also been fully revealed: here the noun “gratitude”, and the adjective “grateful”, and the corresponding adverb. We will dwell on the sacrament later.
Today, we mean gratitude by verbal or material reward to someone for the service provided. For the good, we want to give a reciprocal good. In the Orthodox tradition, the offering of gifts is called the Eucharist, from the Greek eucharistein. At the same time, eu means “good,” and charistein means “to offer,” “to give.” The Greek way of education was completely transferred to the Russian language, only the words used for this were used, and not borrowed - a vivid example of structural tracing paper.
Dual nature
Like many languages ​​of the world, the great and mighty, despite the richness of vocabulary, has many words that coincide in spelling or pronunciation. Such words are called homonyms. Compare “my house” and “my dishes”. In the first case, "mine" is a possessive pronoun, in the second - a verb in the imperative mood. You can distinguish them by value only based on context. Similar cases like “fall low” - “wide mouth”, “during the year” - “during the river” are called omoforms. Here, only one of the word forms fully or partially coincides with the other part of speech.
The word “thanks” can also be called omoform, depending on its meaning and context. And yet, the multifaceted word “thanks” is highlighted with commas or not? It depends on what part of the speech it decided to become in a particular sentence. Let us dwell on two cases of using this word and find out before which “thanks” a comma is needed, and before which - no.
Communion
The special form of the verb “give thanks” means a concomitant action that is of secondary importance. Let us demonstrate this with an example.
The children ran to the stage with flowers, thanks to their beloved teachers, which all touched everyone .
The predicate ran out to the main action. The Communion Party explains why the children ran onto the stage and what they did. Thus, in the proposal, he performs the function of the circumstances of the goal and the accompanying action.
An extremely important point: the addition of teachers here is in the accusative case, because they are grateful. This is the distinctive sign of the germs.
Since every adverbial revolution in Russian is distinguished by commas, this rotation “thanks to” commas, of course, welcomes. If you understand from the context that someone thanks someone for something, feel free to highlight this turnover with commas, thanks to the author of this article .
Pretext
Giving a blessing has become so natural for a person that gradually this word expanded the sphere of influence to inanimate objects that cannot be said “thank you”. The pretext “thanks” was firmly entrenched in colloquial, journalistic, and even official-business styles.
Thanks to your close-knit work, we have dealt with the most complex project in the history of the company.
What immediately catches the eye is that they thank not the person, but the work of the whole team. The word “work” is in the dative case, since all thanks go to her. This is the hallmark of the preposition "thanks." A comma is not set in this case. Move on.
If you have doubts with the insidious word “thanks” - whether a comma is needed or not - try replacing it with the pretext “because”. It has a more negative connotation, but in general coincides in meaning with our main character. If the value of the sentence as a whole does not change, you do not need to put a comma.
Because of your close-knit work, we have dealt with the most complex project in the history of the company.
Of course, the pretext “because” will be more appropriate for criticism, but he performs his verification role well.
Similar cases
If we consider “thanks” as a pretext, it becomes obvious that it is not original, that is, it is derived from another part of speech (germs). The Russian language abounds with prepositions of this type. They can be simple (contrary, due to, contrary to, according to) or compound (during, in connection, to avoid). With some of them, many controversial situations can arise.
If without a comma the statement becomes ambiguous, it is simply necessary.
In order to avoid a misunderstanding of the item by the director , changes were made to the order. - In order to avoid a misunderstanding of the item , the director made changes to the order.
It is very important to understand whether the director or his employee has made changes.
Also separated by commas is the turnover in the middle of the sentence.
The three best workers, due to production needs , were forced to step on the night shift.
In other cases, commas must be omitted.
Due to production needs, the three best workers were forced to step into the night shift.
Foreign thanks
It would be very strange if in other languages ​​such a useful construction did not exist. The pretext "thanks" in many of them is also secondary. The English word thanks to comes from the verb thank - thank, it does not stand out with commas. It is worth noting that the turnover is used mainly with personal pronouns, that is, gratitude is expressed to a particular person.
Thanks to you we did the work on time. “Thanks to you, we did the work on time.”
The German preposition dank is in many ways similar to our “thanks”, a comma after it is also not required. The noun after it will stand in the genitive or dative case.
Dank seinem FleiĂźe beendete er das Projekt. - Thanks to his diligence, he completed this project.
The Finnish version came from the noun ansio - "merit, reward." He is curious that he is not in front of a noun, but after it.
Teidän ansiostanne Jack Sparrow pääsi vapaaksi. “By your efforts, Jack Sparrow is free.”
A similar situation is observed in Turkish, where sayende is in post- position .
Senin sayende . - This is all thanks to you.
To put or not to put
So, after a turn with “ thanks ”, a comma is definitely needed, if this is not an excuse, but an adverb. In the case of the preposition, in most cases there is no need to highlight the turnover with commas.
However, some writers may find it necessary to mark particularly important thoughts, thanks to which the reader will better understand the emotions and nerve of the work. The Russian language, although strict, is susceptible to certain liberties of punctuation. Therefore, do not be surprised if in any modern book you see that both before and after “thanks” are a comma.