Is there anything wrong with the expression “Thanks God”?Both lawyers, Gilbert T. and Ime C. are two Facebook friends of mine who exhibit a healthy respect for good English grammar but are not beyond doing light banter about it. (I won’t give their full name here to protect their privacy.) Commenting on my essay on the idiosyncratic word “while” in
The Manila Times two weeks ago, Gilbert volunteered on my Facebook timeline that his pet peeve is the faulty sense when “for a while” or “wait a while” is used to mean “one moment please.” Ime then chimed in that her own pet peeve is the faulty expression “Thanks God.”
Intrigued by Ime’s comment, I asked: “Can you please tell us your beef against ‘Thanks God’? Precisely why is it your pet peeve?”
She replied: “I am seeing this expression more and more, and my fear is that people may start thinking it’s correct.”
That was all, and as some lawyers are wont to say, she was thereafter silent about the matter.
I felt that Ime assumed I perfectly understood what her problem was with “Thanks God,” but I wasn’t too sure I did. I therefore looked deeper into that expression to fully understand it so I can explain it to those who might be similarly intrigued by her comment.
To begin with, in both grammar and structure, “Thanks God” when expressed as an interjection is wrong and unacceptable. It has to drop the “-s” in “Thanks” and add an exclamation mark (“!”) right after “God” to become this valid interjection: “Thank God!” This way, “Thank God!” becomes an acceptable colloquial phrase that means “I’m grateful!” or “I’m relieved!” or “I’m happy!” for a particular outcome, and—even more important—
not a literal reference to God.
When intended to be in the imperative, however, the phrase “Thanks God” has to drop the ‘s’ in “Thanks,” then adds an exclamation mark after “God.” It is then written and enunciated as follows: “Thank God!” The sense is that of an invocation or command by a higher political or ecclesiastical authority for a congregation to express gratitude to God.
Then there’s this semantically dubious form that uses a comma between the two words of that phrase, ending with or without an exclamation mark: “Thanks, God!” or “Thanks, God.” The sense is that of the speaker addressing God directly, a sense that could be taken as too casual, sarcastic, or even contemptuous depending on how it is articulated. Of course, fearing instantaneous celestial punishment, no true believer of God of whatever religious persuasion would be so insolent and brazen as to address Him so intemperately.
***
This question was raised by my Facebook friend Patrick Anthony Jamilarin a few days ago:
“Many have used ‘entitled’ and ‘titled’ in contexts such as this, “The movie (entitled/titled)
Procession is great.” But which of the two is appropriate, ‘entitled’ or ‘titled’?
My reply to Patrick:The correct word is clearly not “entitled,” which has the sense of “to furnish with proper grounds for seeking or claiming something,” as in “The embattled senator claimed that he was entitled to deliver a rebuttal on the Senate floor against the charges against him.”
The correct word in that context is “titled,” which means “to provide a title for” or “to designate or call by a title,” which is precisely what it means in that sentence you provided, “The movie, titled
Procession, is great.” Better still, drop that verb altogether and just say “The movie
Procession is great.” It so wonderfully gets rid of both unnecessary wordage and punctuation.
Patrick’s rejoinder:I’ve been checking the use of “entitled” in social media, and so far many are using it. I dunno, perhaps perpetuated in old schools.
(Next:
Baffled by the modals “can,” “could,” “will,” and “would”) October 24, 2019
This essay, 1,165th of the series, appeared in the column “English Plain and Simple” by Jose A. Carillo in the Campus Press section of the October 17, 2019 print edition of The Manila Times
, © 2019 by the Manila Times Publishing Corp. All rights reserved.
