42096
Do both these words mean "thank you"? If both mean thank you why are they
spelled differently? Is one more formal than the other?
CC BY-SA 3.0
2016-12-29T10:50:14.950
42093
2016-12-30T01:36:02.873
2016-12-29T11:56:40.550
1628
15986
question
orthography spelling compounds okurigana compound-verbs
有り難う vs 有難う — Is this the same word?
* Yes, they're both the same.
  * It's just an alternate spelling, think `color` vs. `colour`.
  * Not to my knowledge.
CC BY-SA 3.0
2016-12-29T10:56:10.867
42094
2016-12-29T10:56:10.867
7390
42093
answer
Both are different spellings of ありがとう, neither is more formal, although all
three spellings may be differentiated by frequency (see below).

ありがとう "thank you" may be derived from ありがたい through sound change; ありがたい is a
compound of 有る and 難い.

In forming compounds, the first verb conjugates to the _ren'yōkei_ (= " _masu_
-stem"). In compound _verbs_ , like 有り得る or 押し付ける, this is usually all that
happens, but for other compounds **the _okurigana_** ( _hiragana_ part of the
verb) **are sometimes omitted** , so both 有難い and 有り難い are possible ways of
writing the same word. (Here り is the _okurigana_ of 有り.)

There are many other such examples:

  * 受け付け = 受付け = 受付 "reception"
  * 乗り物 = 乗物 "vehicle"

ありがとう is usually written in _hiragana_ nowadays, but it may be written with
_kanji_ , like you suggest.

Here are the frequencies of the different spellings (from Balanced Corpus of
Contemporary Written Japanese, via <http://nlb.ninjal.ac.jp> and
<http://www.kotonoha.gr.jp/shonagon>)

```

    ありがたい 1987 (74%)
    有難い　　  350 (13%)
    有り難い　  343 (13%)
    有りがたい   17 ( 1%)
    
    ありがとう 7090 (93%)
    有難う　　  420 ( 6%)
    有り難う　  102 ( 1%)
    有りがとう    2 ( 0%)
    
    受付　　　 3916 (85%)
    受け付け　  633 (14%)
    受付け　　   34 ( 1%)
    うけつけ　    3 ( 0%)
    受け付　　    1 ( 0%)
    
    乗り物　　  470 (79%)
    乗物　　　   95 (16%)
    のりもの　   16 ( 3%)
    乗りもの　   12 ( 2%)
    
```

As you can see, 有難う is about four times as common as 有り難う, but ありがとう is by far
the most common.
CC BY-SA 3.0
2016-12-29T11:55:04.120
42096
2016-12-29T15:17:57.707
2016-12-29T15:17:57.707
1628
1628
42093
answer
> Do both these words mean "thank you"?

_Yes_. (ありがとう,) 有難う and 有り難う are same.

> If both mean thank you why are they spelled differently?

有り難う is correct way of writing, and 有難う is also correct. According to
[MEXT](http://www.mext.go.jp/b_menu/hakusho/nc/k19730618001/k19730618001.html):

> 許容 読み間違えるおそれのない場合は，活用語尾以外の部分について，送り仮名を省くことができる。

_If there is no danger of misreading, excepting sentences' ending, you can
leave out okurigana (Part of word written in Kana)._

> Is one more formal than the other?

I think 有り難う is formal.
CC BY-SA 3.0
2016-12-29T12:22:36.063
42097
2016-12-30T01:36:02.873
2016-12-30T01:36:02.873
14627
14627
42093
answer