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  1. Thank you very much in advance.
  2. Thank you in advance very much.

Is the first sentence correct or the second one? I would say that the first one is right, but I am not sure.

In any case, thank you very much in advance!

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    Your instincts are correct that the first one is better, but neither is great. For one thing, the occurrence of “very much in advance” gives it some unintended ambiguity. Consider the sentence “He said thank you very much in advance”. Obviously some interior quotation marks would clarify that one, but as it stands it's unclear whether this other person said “thank you very much” in advance or said “thank you” very much in advance. That's probably a bit of hair splitting, though. I think my biggest problem with it is that I find “very much” to be fawning at best and sarcastic at worst. – Tyler James Young Dec 19 '13 at 17:27
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    What @Tyler said. It's not that unreasonable to end a letter or email with Thanking you in advance. But including very much when you can't even know for sure that whether what you hope to be grateful for will actually happen at all seems like taking fawning toadyism a bit too far. – FumbleFingers Reinstate Monica Dec 19 '13 at 18:16
  • What is the difference between “thank you very much” in advance and “thank you” very much in advance? I am Czech and I don't see a difference. I want to say this: I want to thank you in advance and I want to thank you very much. How do I say it in one sentence? How to merge these sentences? – Derfder Dec 19 '13 at 19:42
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    "Thank you very much" in advance means "before you even do it, I am thanking you very much". "Thank you" very much in advance means "a very long time before you do it, I am thanking you." – Hellion Dec 19 '13 at 21:09
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Here are some search results from the Corpus of Contemporary American English (COCA):

  12464     thank you very much
  16        thank you in advance
  0         thank you very much in advance
  0         thank you in advance very much

As you can see, thank you very much is a common collocation. Thank you in advance is attested but less common, and the other combinations have no results whatsoever.

Ideally, you wouldn't combine in advance with thank you very much at all; it's simply not idiomatic. But if you do, I think it sounds marginally less unnatural putting in advance at the end, perhaps because thank you very much is such a common collocation, and breaking it up with in advance is odd.

So if I were forced to pick, I'd pick thank you very much in advance, although my real preference is for neither.

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  • In Czech it's common to say something like: Predem Vam velice dekuji | predem = in advance, Vam = to you, velice = very much( a lot) | dekuji = thanks . So, I am surprised that nothing similar is in English. It's weird that you can say "Thank you very much." and "Thank you in advance." But it's not possible to combine and merge these two things into one. Weird ;(. What about "Thank you a lot in advance?" Still not possibel in English. I mean, "thank you" is normal, but "thank you very much" means that you really appreciate it and sincerely are thankful for that and you appreciate it very much. – Derfder Dec 20 '13 at 12:27
  • (cont.) so why not to thank the person very very much, because it's something you appreciate very very much and at the same time in advance, before it happen. E.g. somebody is going to find your lost child in a forest full of tigers ;D. So, it's obviously a brave task and the mother is very thankful and thanks the person in advance and very, very, very much. Instead of saying these 2 sentences "Thank you very much brave man. And thank you in advance." what would she say in one sentence? – Derfder Dec 20 '13 at 12:33
  • @Derfder It's not idiomatic, but I wouldn't say that it's "not possible". You can say it if you really want to! Although it's worth noting that some people think that thanking "in advance" is rude in English; for that reason I avoid using the phrase, myself. – snailcar♦ Dec 20 '13 at 12:35
  • How would you say it in one sentace? Are you from the US or the UK? – Derfder Dec 20 '13 at 15:15
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    @Derfder In a similar situation one might say: "Thank you so much for trying to find my daughter/son" And if the person succeeds in finding the lost child you could say: "I'm forever in your debt. How can I ever repay you?" – Mari-Lou A Dec 22 '13 at 1:33
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Grammatically, both are OK.

1) Thank you very much in advance.

2) Thank you in advance very much.

However, when you switch the positions of modifiers, the sentence may tell something differently. It is good idea to put a modifier close to what it modifies. But you have got a problem here. The phrases "in advance" and "very much", both seem to modify "thank you". Comparing the both modifiers, you could feel the "in advance" is less dependent. In other words, you could sense what "in advance" says without any other words. However, what can you know when I say only a phrase "very much". The phrase "very much" is more dependent on what it modifies than "in advance". So you might want to put more-dependent modifiers closer to what they modify. Again, see the sentence 2) Thank you in advance very much. You might be confused saying "very much" for what?" Some may think the "very much" modifies "in advance", because it is the closest to "very much".

As mentioned, the phrase you show is not idiomatic. But it does not mean you must not use it, although you have to be careful about what they think hearing unusual phrases.

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