Brits avoid 'thank you' and find other ways to express gratitude

British people have switched to 'Cheers', 'ta' or 'that's great' to express their gratitude, instead of using a thank you, as they think it's too formal.

Four out of 10 Brits prefer not to use the two simple words, while 13 per cent consider it old-fashioned, the Daily Express reported.

The country's citizens have resorted to words like cool, brilliant, lovely, fab, super, you star, wicked, okay, nice one, much appreciated, awesome and even...boom! to replace a thank you.

Zoe Shore, for the study by First Direct bank, said that people still like to give and receive thanks, but in the modern world there are a million different ways to do this.

Shore said that people use different phrases depending on the situation and who they are speaking to.

She insisted that words such as boom, cool and wicked might be deemed appropriate with your mates, but not quite so suitable for a work setting, or when talking to an elder.

Six in 10 people believe that, as a nation, Britain is quite rude.

And 83 per cent think more effort is required to regularly show gratitude, even if it's just a little wave of acknowledgement.