ありがたい

あ

り

が

た

い

Common wordJLPTN2Freq.FrequencyTop 5,000

Meanings

i-adjective

grateful; thankful; appreciated

usually written using kana alone

Expresses personal gratitude for a favor, kindness, or fortunate circumstance. Often used in set phrases like ありがたいことに (thankfully) or to describe something that evokes thankfulness.

お忙いそがしいところ手伝てつだってくれて、本ほん当とうにありがたいです。
I'm truly grateful that you helped me despite being busy.
ありがたいことに、天てん気きが回かい復ふくした。
Thankfully, the weather cleared up.

Written forms

ありがたいUsage76%
Kana spelling is standard; usually written in kana.
有あり難がたいUsage14%
Abbreviated kanji spelling; rare and mostly encountered in older texts or signs.
有あり難がたいUsage9%
Kanji spelling with okurigana; seen in formal or literary contexts but less common than kana.
アリガタイUsage<1%

Kanji

有possess, have, exist
難difficult, impossible, trouble

Similar words

感かん謝しゃ
感謝 is a noun/suru-verb meaning 'gratitude' or 'to thank', often used in formal expressions of thanks. ありがたい is an adjective describing the feeling of being grateful or something that inspires gratitude.
すみません
すみません is a common apology or expression of thanks for a small favor, but it carries a nuance of indebtedness or regret. ありがたい is a more direct expression of thankfulness.

Etymology

Derived from 有る (aru, 'to exist') + 難い (katai, 'difficult'), literally 'hard to exist' or 'rare', shifting to mean 'precious' and then 'grateful'. The kanji spellings reflect this origin, but the word is now usually written in kana.