"thanks to (command)"

A friend who works in business says that she has been hearing a lot of polite commands worded as e.g. "thanks to ask any questions at the end of the presentation" (she has also seen this written a few times, so it isn't just spoken).

I find this surprising since I would have avoided the infinitive here ("thanks for asking") or I would have turned the "thanks" into a verb ("I'll thank you to ask").

For context, she works in a very international setting, but has heard this turn of phrase only from USAmericans.

Is this a "correct" turn of phrase? how widespread is it? how recent is it? can anyone find examples in established writing?

Solution 1:

The people OP's "friend who works in business" deals with are either non-native speakers of English, or very illiterate/sloppy.

I'm not sure there is a credible phrasing involving "thanks" for a command/request not yet carried out, since semantically it's nonsense. The closest I can come up with is...

I will thank you (to keep your opinions to yourself, nose out of this, hands off me, etc.)

...but this form is normally only used after someone has already done the opposite (or was obviously just about to do so). It's somewhat dated, and very haughty/confrontational/rude.

The rudeness of the above form is a good reason for steering clear of thanking anyone for anything in advance. People do often write "Thanks in advance" at the end of letters/emails asking for something which they expect/are entitled to receive, but I wouldn't push it.

Solution 2:

"Thanks to" cannot go before "ask any questions at the end of the presentation."

Using "thanks to" before a command like that is incorrect.

The correct way to phrase it would be:

"Thanks for asking any questions at the end of the presentation" with the unspoken implication of "as opposed to asking them during the presentation"

It requires the past tense of ask and it requires "for" and not "to" because by using "to" the thanks are being directed to a specific entity whereas the "for" directs the thanks to any entity who meets the criteria set out in the next part of the sentence.

Solution 3:

I hear this phrase constantly in Brusselian technocratic "English". It comes from French where you can correctly say "merci de..." but it is NOT English. The people saying this are not native-speakers. They may possibly be very fluent but are likely to have French as a native language or it is their native language but they grew up in a country where it is not the official language.