Grateful vs Thankful

Last week we discussed the meaning of the word ‘grateful’… an emotion expressing appreciation.

Oh! So it’s a feeling. Haha… I like that. I do feelings so I should be good at this. 🙂

I wonder if it is the same as ‘thankful’?

‘Thankful’ is an adjective (describing word) and means, according to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, ‘Conscious of benefit received’.

‘thankfulness’ is the noun (naming word)

‘Thank’ is the verb (doing word)

Sorry… too many years homeschooling and now I find word studies fascinating.

If ‘grateful’ is an emotion or feeling, and ‘thankful’ is a conscious thought, then I see that I can be thankful without feeling anything. If these conscious thoughts of thankfulness multiply and continue perhaps one could expect that emotions would eventually kick in as well?

But can I be ‘grateful’ without being ‘thankful’? ie., have the emotion without the conscious thought?

We’ve had a lot of fun thinking this one through this week. It’s like a mental game of Twister.

What do you think? Pop your thoughts in the comments.

And while you are pondering that fine line, here’s this week’s grateful drawings. Enjoy!