What phrase is acceptable to say to someone who taught you something new?
In my native language if someone taught you one thing new that you didn't know before (for example: he corrected me for a mistake and explained me a new rule to avoid it) then we tell him something that can be translated into: Tank you, I've became smart/er or "Thank you. Iv'e got smarter." Then my question what is the parallel phrase in English? (Maybe, "Thank you I('ve) learnt something new", will work?)
Best Answer
It would be grammatical and understood if you said Thank you, you have just made me smarter. It would not be fully logical because of ambiguities in what is meant by the word smarter. You are certainly more knowledgeable than you were five minutes ago, and you may be wiser, but it is extremely dubious whether you are more intelligent. It would be clearer to say Thank you for for making me more knowledgeable or Thank you for making me wiser.
None of these, however, are highly idiomatic. In English, it is more frequent to thank someone for what he or she did. So what sounds more idiomatic to me is Thank you for teaching me something new or Thank you for preventing me from making that mistake again.