This week's question is about a British English word - 'cheers'. We had an email from Jo Jo who has observed that it's a word people use instead of thank you and wants to know more.

	Cheers is usually said before a drink

Cheers is perhaps more commonly known as something people say before they drink alcohol to wish someone good health.

However, it's a word used by all British people and not just young people, to mean thank you. So any time you want to say thank you, you can just replace that with the word cheers in British English.

It's used in an informal way but it can be used in formal situations, like when talking to your boss or someone you don't know very well.

	People often say cheers or ta when buying something

So what are the origins of this word? Well, it's likely it has evolved over the years from when people used to say many years ago 'be of good cheer' or 'good cheer to you'. This would have been a greeting to wish someone well that has been shortened to cheers over time.

Cheers is only used in British English and you wouldn't really hear this word spoken in North America to mean thank you.

Another British English word to watch out for that is used to mean thank you is ta. This is basically a short form of thank you that is used with very small children and lots of adults use it too.

Thank you Jo Jo for your question. If you have a question please get in touch. You can email us at questions.chinaelt@bbc.co.uk. We look forward to hearing from you.

Glossary 词汇

observed

注意到

to wish someone good health

祝某人身体健康

replace

代替

informal

非正式的

formal

正式的

boss

老板

origins

起源

evolved

演变

cheer

欢乐，乐观

to wish someone well

祝某人健康（问候语）

shortened

缩短

over time

随着时间的推移