Thank you for not smoking

[joham]

Thank you for not smoking (=Please don't smoke).

This sentence is taken from L. G. Alexander's LONGMAN ENGLISH GRAMMAR.


Do native speakers often use 'Thank you for not doing sth' as well as 'Thank you not to do sth'?


Thank you in advance.

 

[J&K Tutoring]

There may be other situations where one could say, "Thank you for not ____", but it's by far most often used in reference to smoking.

 

[joham]

Thank you very much, J&K Tutoring. You're saying "Thank you for not smoking' is far more often used than 'Thank you not to smoke', am I right?Then how about 'I'll thank you for leaving / to leave my affairs alone"? Do both work as well? This is the exercise I ran across today and I don't know if both are fine (The given answer is 'to leave').

Thank you again.

 

[Raymott]

Thank you very much, J&K Tutoring. Then how about 'I'll thank you for leaving / to leave my affairs alone"? Do both work as well? This is the exercise I ran across today and I don't know if both are fine (The given answer is 'to leave').
No, "to leave" is the proper way of saying it.
Thank you again.

"Thank you for not ..." is used on signs. I don't think I've ever heard people actually saying it in advance. You can say it after the fact: "Thank you for not mentioning X while Mary was here," but not beforehand.

The "I'll thank you to ... " version is OK. "I'll thank you to mind your own business." But this is different from "Thank you for minding your own business", which, as I said, is not spoken.

 

[joham]

I've finally got it. Thank you very much again, J&K and Raymott for your kind invaluable help.