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I've been wondering how to say something like "I love you for being great" or "Thank you for eating with me" in French. What tense/mood do you use to conjugate the verbs in? I'll be using the sentence "Thank you for cooking" for my examples. Do you say

Merci pour cuisiner

Or

Merci pour cuisinant

Or

Merci pour avoir cuisiner (If the person is thanking someone who cooked)

Or

Merci pour la cuisine

Thank you!

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  • "Merci ..." et "je t'aime ..." will not lead to similar constructions in French. – None Apr 9 '16 at 18:00
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Rule: when merci stands in front of a verb in the infinitive, then the verb is preceded by "de" (and not "pour").

Merci de préparer à manger (de faire la cuisine) would usually mean you're thanking the person for what they are going to do. It could possibly mean you're asking them to do it (depends on the tone).

Merci d'avoir fait à manger (d'avoir fait la cuisine) definitely means you're thanking them for something they have done.

"Merci pour cet excellent repas" "Merci de cet excellent repas" are both correct because "cet excellent repas" is a noun phrase.

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  • So does merci "take" the preposition "de", and many words in general will "take" some preposition or another? – TheEnvironmentalist Nov 30 '17 at 13:33
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Merci d'avoir fait la cuisine.

or

Merci pour la cuisine.

or

Je vous remercie d'avoir fait la cuisine.

or

Je vous remercie pour la cuisine.

Merci de... + infinitive vs Merci pour... + Noun

would be correct.

faire la cuisine is to prepare the food and actually cook, instead of just saying.

The chicken is cooking in the oven.

Please look at this to see the differences with cooking in french.

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    I would translate Merci de faire la cuisine as Please do the cooking or more literally I'll thank you to do the cooking. Merci de + infinitive is often used as a barely polite order unless the thing you are giving thanks for is an actual fact. Merci d'avoir fait la cuisine is perfectly acceptable thanks, but depending on the tone can convey some surprise. I would maybe say Merci pour la cuisine or (very much more recommended if true) Merci pour cet excellent repas – Law29 Apr 9 '16 at 18:06
  • Merci d'y avoir repondu. – Mason H. Hatfield Apr 10 '16 at 1:57

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