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I am trying to understand the different levels of politeness with words. Can someone help me with these.
Given casual, polite, formal and honorific. How would "thank you" be said.
I assume dōmo - casual but I am not sure how to say this with the other levels of politeness.
Thanks
Now, I ain't a expert, but as I understand it:
「ありがとう」 For your friends/family and your 後輩.
「ありがとうございます」 For your friends/family and (most importantly) your 先輩.
「どうも」 A bit unique as it can mean ありがとう on it's own and is apparently even usable in 敬語 and formal settings which is nice. That said どうも doesn't just mean thank you, but also means hello and goodbye according to context.
「どうもありがとう」 Apparently the equivalent to ありがとうございます, However I'm not 100% on the nuance behind it, and it's likely ether a bit more or less polite then ありがとうございます.
「どうもありがとうございます」 The most polite of them all, used with your 先輩 of course.
Hope this helps mate, if you got more questions then just ask mate. :D
dōmo (どうも)
This is close to "thanks" nuance. It is used when talking friends. If used to your boss, that is rude.
dōmo arigatō (どうもありがとう)
This is almost same as dōmo, but this is commonly used.
arigatō gozaimasu (ありがとうございます)
It is very polite. So you could use this to boss.
