KARL D. writes:

There is something new in the language today. It is the response of “No worries” to a “Thank you” instead of the traditional “You’re welcome.” I don’t know why, but I find this highly annoying. I could even get behind the casual “No problem” in some circumstances because at least it insinuates that a “Thank you” was unnecessary as the service provided did not even warrant one. It’s almost akin to saying, “My Pleasure.” Yet “No Worries” implies to me that I was “worried” about the situation or the service provided. It’s almost like saying, “I forgive you.” Why would I be worried or need forgiveness? I am far from an English teacher or professor, but that’s my take on it.

— Comments —

Joe A. writes:

I’d be happy to hear an occasional “Thank you” if only I could reply, “no worries”!

Have you noticed the Slacker Generation of clerks and waiters is structurally incapable of rendering the very sound of “Thank you?” It would be humorous to catalogue the many circumlocutions used to avoid it.  Here’s a start:

“You’re welcome” – because you ought to thank them for the privilege of paying.

“Here you go!” as they return your bank card.

“Have a nice dah-ee!” –morning orders from the Morale Officers.  (When did diphthongs become syllables in their own right?)

[Conspicuous silence] accompanied with a “thousand yard stare,” other times, a wicked glare.

How many more can we add?

Matt W. writes:

I haven’t personally had anyone say “No Worries” to me as a response to “Thank You” or even heard of it being said here, but I wonder if it comes from the Australian “No Worries, Mate”? Perhaps a bit of a fascination with Down-Under?

Funky Ph.D. writes:

I object to both “No worries” and “No problem” for their presumption that doing something for someone else necessarily inconveniences the doer. “You’re welcome” acknowledges the generosity and affirms the fellow humanity of the thanker; “no worries” and “no problem” state that the expected resentment of having to perform the service for which one is being thanked was averted (“doing something for another normally inconveniences or annoys me; in this case, though, that didn’t happen, so there’s no need for you to feel guilty or consider yourself indebted to me”).

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