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 raise many questions, which become more difficult the more you think about them. Let's think: do we need a comma before "thanks" in the first sentence? Or maybe it is worth highlighting this word with commas on both sides? It would look quite natural. The task is not as easy as it seems.
Greek tracing paper
The etymology of the word "to thank" is transparent and any native Russian speaker can easily explain it. “Give good” - two beautiful common Slavic words merged into one due to very frequent use. The word-building potential of the word was also fully revealed: here is the noun "gratitude", and the adjective "grateful", and the corresponding adverb. We will deal with the participle later.
Today we mean by gratitude a verbal or material reward to someone for a service rendered. For good, we want to give a return 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 “offer”, “give”. The Greek way of education was completely transferred to the Russian language, only the words were used for this, and not borrowed - a vivid example of structural tracing paper.
Dual nature
Like many languages of the world, great and mighty, despite the richness of vocabulary, has many words that coincide in spelling or pronunciation. Such words are called homonyms. Let's compare "my house" and "my dishes". In the first case, "my" is a possessive pronoun, in the second case, a verb in the imperative mood. The only way to tell them apart is by context. Similar cases like “mouth low” - “wide mouth”, “during the year” - “throughout the river” are called homoforms. Here only one of the word forms fully or partially coincides with another part of speech.
The word “thanks” can also be called an omoform, depending on its meaning and context. And yet, the many-sided word "thanks" is separated by commas or not? It depends on what part of speech it decided to become in a particular sentence. Let's dwell on two cases of the use of this word and find out which "thanks" is preceded by a comma, and which is not.
Gerential participle
A special form of the verb "to thank" denotes an accompanying action that has a secondaryvalue. Let's demonstrate this with an example.
Children ran onto the stage with flowers, thanks to their favorite teachers, which made everyone very happy.
The predicate ran out to the main action. The adverbial turnover explains why the children ran onto the stage and what they did at the same time. Thus, in the sentence, it performs the function of the circumstance of the goal and the accompanying action.
An extremely important point: the addition of teachers here is in the accusative case, because it is them who are thanked. This is the hallmark of the participle.
Since every adverbial turnover in Russian is marked with commas, this turnover "thanks" to commas, of course, welcomes. If you understand from the context that someone is thanking someone for something, feel free to separate this turnover with commas, thanks to the author of this article.
Preposition
Giving good has become so natural for a person that gradually this word expanded its sphere of influence to inanimate objects to which it is impossible to say “thank you”. The preposition "thanks" is firmly entrenched in colloquial, journalistic and even official business styles.
Thanks to your solid work, we have managed to cope with the most difficult project in the history of the company.
Immediately striking is the fact that they thank not a person, but the work of the whole team. The word "work" is in the dative case, since all thanks go to her. This is a hallmark of the preposition "thanks". A comma is not included in this case. Let's move on.
If you have any doubts about the insidious word "thanks" - whether a comma is needed or not - try replacing it with the preposition "because of". It has a more negative connotation, but in general the same meaning as our main character. If the meaning of the sentence as a whole does not change, you do not need to put a comma.
Because of your teamwork, we have managed the most difficult project in the company's history.
Of course, the preposition "because of" would be more appropriate for criticism, but it performs its role of verification well.
Similar cases
If we consider "thanks" as a preposition, it becomes obvious that it is non-primitive, that is, it is derived from another part of speech (general participle). The Russian language is replete with prepositions of this type. They can be simple (in spite of, as a result, contrary to, according to) or compound (during, in connection with, in order to avoid). With some of them, many controversial situations may arise.
If a statement without a comma becomes ambiguous, it is simply necessary.
In order to avoid misunderstanding of the item by the director, changes were made to the order. – To avoid misunderstanding of the item, changes were made to the order by the director.
It is very important to understand whether the director or his employee made the changes.
Also separated by commas in the middle of a sentence.
Three best workers, due to production needs, were forced to take over the night shift.
Bin other cases, commas should be omitted.
Due to production needs, the top three workers were forced to take over the night shift.
Foreign thanks
It would be very strange if other languages did not have such a useful construct. The preposition "thanks" in many of them is also secondary. The English turnover thanks to comes from the verb thank - “to thank”, it is not separated by commas. It is worth noting that the turnover is used mainly with personal pronouns, that is, gratitude is expressed to a specific person.
Thanks to you we did the work on time. – Thanks to you, we got the job done on time.
The German preposition dank is a lot like our "thanks" and doesn't require a comma after it either. The noun after it will be in the genitive or dative case.
Dank seinem Fleiße beendete er das Projekt. – Thanks to his diligence, he completed this project.
The Finnish version comes from the noun ansio - "merit, reward". It is curious in that it is not before the noun, but after it.
Teidän ansiostanne Jack Sparrow pääsi vapaaksi. - Thanks to your efforts, Jack Sparrow is free.
A similar situation occurs in Turkish, where sayende is in postposition.
Senin sayende. - It's all thanks to you.
To bet or not to bet
So, after the turnover with “thanks”, a comma will definitely be needed if this is not a preposition, but a gerund. In the case of the proposalIn most cases, there is no need to separate the turnover with commas.
However, some writers may find it necessary to label particularly important points that will help the reader better understand the emotion and nerve of the work. The Russian language, although strict, is susceptible to some liberties of punctuation. Therefore, do not be surprised if in some modern book you see that both before and after “thanks” is a comma.
