Gracias & Agradezco

[mikemacabre]

I had never heard of the word Agradezco till today. Before that I always said gracias when I wanted to thank someone. My question is when should I use agradezco instead of gracias. I would like to put that word into practice.

Gracias por su ayuda. Thank you for your help.
Agradezco por su ayuda. Thank you for your help.

http://conjugator.reverso.net/conjug...agradecen.html

It just seems I should of been using that word instead of gracias

[Rusty]

'Gracias' is always fine, but, as you've discovered, there are other ways to give thanks.

'Agradecer' takes an indirect object and a direct object.
Learn this construct: agradecer(le) algo a alguien.
This means 'to thank someone for something'. The only preposition needed is 'a', used to identify the indirect object (represented by a alguien) when using the ambiguous third person or for emphasis. There is no preposition needed before the direct object (represented by algo).

Te agradezco tu/la ayuda. = I thank you (familiar) for your help.
Le agradezco su/la ayuda a usted. = I thank you (formal) for your help.
Le agradezco a él su/la ayuda. = I thank him for his help.
A ella le agradezco su/la ayuda. = I thank her for her help.

Notice that I identified the indirect object used in the third person, and moved it around a bit so you could see that it doesn't always have to be at the end of the construct (as the model suggests).

[Don José]

Here you use "te lo agradezco" to emphasize how grateful you are. You won't use it after asking the time or things like that, but rather when, e. g., you have a big problem and somebody offers to help you.

You can also say " te lo agradezco de verdad".