Learn Hardcore Chinese: xièxie nǐ bāngzhù wǒ.

In Chinese, 你帮助我 (“you help me”) directly follows 谢谢 and functions like the reason for the thanks. The preposition “for” is not translated word‑for‑word; the relationship is understood from the word order and context.

So 谢谢你帮助我 naturally means “Thank you for helping me”, even though there is no separate word meaning “for.”

Can I just say 谢谢你 without 帮助我? Does that sound less polite?

Yes, you can absolutely just say 谢谢你.

谢谢你。 — “Thank you.”
谢谢你帮助我。 — “Thank you for helping me.”

谢谢你 is already polite and completely natural. You use it any time you want to thank someone, no matter what you’re thanking them for.

Adding 帮助我 simply makes the sentence more specific: it tells the listener exactly what you are thankful for. It’s not “more polite” so much as “more explicit.”

What’s the difference between 帮助 and 帮? Which one is more natural here?

Both 帮助 (bāngzhù) and 帮 (bāng) mean “to help,” but they differ slightly in usage and feel:

帮:
- Shorter, more colloquial, very common in everyday speech.
- Works as a verb: 谢谢你帮我。
帮助:
- Slightly more formal or neutral.
- Can be a verb or a noun.
- As a verb: 谢谢你帮助我。
- As a noun (often with 的): 谢谢你的帮助。 — “Thank you for your help.”

In ordinary spoken Chinese, 谢谢你帮我 is very common and sounds a bit more casual. 谢谢你帮助我 is also correct and natural, just a touch more formal or “textbook-like.”

Can I say 谢谢你帮我 instead of 谢谢你帮助我? Is there any difference in meaning?

Yes, you can say 谢谢你帮我。

谢谢你帮我。
谢谢你帮助我。

They mean essentially the same thing: “Thank you for helping me.”

Differences:

帮我 is more colloquial and is what you’ll hear most often in daily conversation.
帮助我 feels slightly more formal or careful.

In most real‑life situations (with friends, classmates, colleagues), 谢谢你帮我 will be the more natural choice.

Why is the word order 谢谢你帮助我 and not something like 谢谢你我帮助?

Chinese word order is quite strict, especially for basic sentences. The structure here is:

谢谢 + (谁) + (做什么)
谢谢你帮助我。 = “Thank you (你) for doing what? → 帮助我.”

Breaking it down:

谢谢 – “thank”
你 – “you” (the person being thanked)
帮助我 – “help me” (the specific action you’re thankful for)

You generally cannot rearrange this freely.
Forms like ✗ 谢谢你我帮助 or ✗ 谢谢我帮助你 are ungrammatical or would change the meaning.

If you change 我 and 你, the meaning changes:

谢谢你帮助我。 – “Thank you for helping me.”
谢谢我帮助你。 – “Thank me for helping you.” (this would sound very odd and self‑centered)

Do I need 了 to show it’s past, like 谢谢你帮助了我?

You usually do not need 了 here. 谢谢你帮助我。 by default refers to help that has already happened or is understood from context.

谢谢你帮助我。 is perfectly natural for thanking someone for something they already did.

You might see 谢谢你帮了我 or 谢谢你对我的帮助。, but:

谢谢你帮了我。 is acceptable, but you’ll more often just hear 谢谢你帮我。
Adding 了 is more about the completion of the action than about past tense in the English sense.

In short: 谢谢你帮助我 (or 谢谢你帮我) is standard and does not need 了.

What’s the difference between 你 and 您 in this sentence?

你 (nǐ) = informal “you,” used with friends, classmates, colleagues, most people you know well or are equal with.
您 (nín) = polite/formal “you,” used to show respect, especially to older people, superiors, customers, etc.

So you can say:

谢谢你帮助我。 — normal, neutral politeness; most situations.
谢谢您帮助我。 — more respectful; to a teacher, an older person, a client, etc.

The rest of the sentence stays the same; only 你/您 changes the level of respect.

Can I drop some of the pronouns, like say 谢谢帮助我 or 谢谢你帮助?

Normally, you can’t drop them that way in this sentence.

✗ 谢谢帮助我。 — sounds incomplete/unnatural. “Thank you help me” without specifying who you’re thanking is odd.
✗ 谢谢你帮助。 — also incomplete: “Thank you for helping” but not saying whom you helped.

Natural options:

谢谢你。 – “Thank you.” (simple, very common)
谢谢你的帮助。 – “Thank you for your help.” (using 的 + 帮助 as a noun phrase)
谢谢你帮我。 – “Thank you for helping me.”

Chinese does sometimes drop pronouns when they’re obvious from context, but in a short stand‑alone sentence like this, 你 and 我 are normally kept.

How exactly is 谢谢 pronounced? What are the tones on each syllable?

谢谢 is pronounced xièxie:

谢 (xiè) – 4th tone (falling): xiè
谢 (xie) – written with 4th tone in dictionaries, but in actual speech the second syllable is pronounced with a neutral tone (轻声).

So in real pronunciation, it’s:

xiè (strong, falling) + xie (light, short, unstressed)

You don’t say xiè‑xiè with two equally strong falling tones. The second one is softer and shorter: xiè·xie.

Is 谢谢你帮助我 formal or informal? When would I use this exact sentence?

谢谢你帮助我。 is neutral; it works in both spoken and written Chinese.

You might use it:

To a classmate who tutored you.
To a colleague who helped you with a task.
In a message/email thanking someone for assistance.

Slight variations by register:

More casual: 谢谢你帮我。 / 真的谢谢你。
More formal/respectful: 非常感谢您对我的帮助。 (“I am very grateful for the help you have given me.”)

So the given sentence is appropriate in most everyday situations, not extremely casual and not overly formal.

What’s the difference between 谢谢你帮助我 and 谢谢你的帮助?

Both express thanks for help, but the grammar and nuance are slightly different:

谢谢你帮助我。
- 帮助 is a verb: “you help me.”
- Emphasizes the action of helping.
- Closest to: “Thank you for helping me.”
谢谢你的帮助。
- 帮助 is a noun here, with 的 making 你的帮助 = “your help.”
- Emphasizes the help as a thing you received.
- Closest to: “Thank you for your help.”

Both are natural. 谢谢你的帮助 is very common in writing and polite speech; 谢谢你帮我 / 谢谢你帮助我 is slightly more action-focused.