Different ways to say "Sorry" in English

Did you know most British people say sorry

around eight times a day.

And what's interesting is only about 20% of those

are to actually apologize.

Why is that? Let's find out.

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Hello, it's Keith, from Keith Speaking Academy

and the YouTube channel, English Speaking Success,

where you become a confident speaker of English.

Now, we use sorry in British culture quite a lot, right?

Eight times a day,

that's over 200,000 times in a lifetime.

We often use sorry to apologize, right?

When we've done something wrong, for example,

when we bump into people, sorry.

And here's a strange thing,

even if somebody bumps into us, we say, sorry.

Sorry, but they bumped into me.

Why do we do that?

I think it's because we want to make them feel comfortable,

because we assume that they have

bumped into us by accident, right?

Not only do we use sorry to apologize,

we use sorry to complain.

In a restaurant with the waiter,

I'm sorry, but this food is cold.

The boss with their worker.

I'm sorry, you're late again, and it's just not good enough.

Interesting, right?

We also use, sorry to talk to strangers.

Now, here's a curious thing about British culture.

We never speak to strangers in public places,

like on a bus or in a queue or waiting for a train, never.

Unless we want to ask something and then we use, sorry.

For example, "Sorry, is this the right train for London?"

"Sorry, are you queuing for the, okay."

Strange, right?

And I think the sorry, is sorry to disturb you,

and you want to ask something.

It reveals a lot about British culture, I think.

So in this video, right, I'm gonna focus on different ways

to apologize using different words and expressions.

We'll look at three things,

informal contexts with family and friends,

slightly more formal, and then very formal context,

more professional settings, okay?

Do remember there is a free PDF that you can download

to review this language and to practice it after the lesson.

All right, let's get into it.

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Okay, let's begin with sorry.

We can use this for every context, actually.

But let's look generally, family, friends,

or maybe socializing at work.

This is the most common way to apologize.

Imagine you are meeting a friend

or a colleague socially, and you're late.

You're gonna say, "Oh, I'm late, sorry."

Or "I'm sorry, I'm late."

Or "I'm sorry for being late."

I'm sorry for, for being late.

I'm sorry for doing something, okay?

Even in a work situation, right?

Your boss may say,

"You forgot to send me the report yesterday."

"Oh, I'm sorry. I'll send it right away."

Absolutely fine, it's the most flexible way to apologize.

You don't have to say, "I'm sorry."

You can just say, "Sorry."

"Sorry, I'll send it straight away."

Sometimes we say, sorry about that.

Sorry about that, okay?

"You forgot to send the report."

"Sorry about that, I'll send it straight away."

"You're late again."

"Sorry about that, I'll be on time next time, honest."

Or even in a meeting when you steal the boss's chair.

"You're sitting in my chair."

"Oops, sorry about that." Embarrassing.

Now, when you're with friends, colleagues, et cetera,

you can also say, this is very informal,

my bad, my bad.

"Hey, you've put sugar in my coffee."

"My bad, I'll get you a new one."

My bad is a very American expression actually.

We are using it more and more in Britain

as American pop culture invades,

sorry, spreads across Britain

through Netflix and everything.

So you hear that even in Britain now, my bad.

I think we would tend to say, my fault,

my mistake, sorry, my fault.

Sorry, that was my fault. All of these are good, right?

For example, a colleague may say, "Listen, that email,

you forgot to put the attachment in the email."

"My mistake, I'll resend it."

"My bad, I'll send it again with the attachment."

The other day I was driving with my daughter,

taking her to another birthday party.

We're driving along, she's on the phone navigating for me,

and she goes, right, turn right.

And I missed the turning and I carry on and she says,

"Oi, dad, you've missed the exit."

"Oh, my bad. I'll turn around."

Now, sometimes, in addition to my mistake, my bad, sorry,

we add the word, whoops.

Whoops, whoops, sorry about that.

Whoops, my mistake.

In very old English, we might say, whoops-a-daisy.

And if you've seen the film "Notting Hill,"

do you remember the scene, right, with Hugh Grant,

and where he's trying to climb into the garden

and Julia Roberts is behind him and he slips

and he says, "Whoops-a-daisy?"

And she laughs, being American, and says,

"You don't really say whoops-a-daisy in English, do you?"

- Right.

(leaves rustling)

Whoop-a-daisy.

- What did you say?

- Nothing.

- Yes you did.

- No, I didn't.

- You said, whoops-a-daisy.

No one says whoops-a-daisy, do they?

I mean, unless- - There is no one unless,

'cause no one has said whoop-a-daisy for what, 50 years?

- So, of course, we never say, whoops-a-daisy, do we?

Hmm, whoops. Let's move on.

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Okay, let's look at slightly more formal situations.

First of all, professional and then, secondly, personal,

but a little bit more formal.

Professional situations, we may say,

my apologies, or just apologies.

For example, imagine you've booked a room in a hotel,

you arrive at the hotel and you want to complain.

Notice how I complain.

"Sorry, but I booked a double room,

and I've actually got a single room."

"Oh, my apologies, sir. I'll sort that out immediately."

Okay, you may also say, I apologize,

using the verb, I apologize.

Maybe you're complaining to a supplier.

You say, "Listen, we received the wrong shipment yesterday."

Or, "I apologize for the inconvenience,

we'll send you the correct order as soon as possible."

On a more personal level,

in life, you may argue with your partner.

And after an argument you might say, forgive me,

or even please forgive me.

And then again, depends on your relationship, right?

But maybe your partner says,

"I'm really hurt about what you said to me."

"Oh, I'm so sorry. Please forgive me."

"I didn't realize it would hurt you."

Even a bit stronger, you could say, "I owe you an apology,"

meaning I must give you an apology.

Again, maybe after an argument with your partner,

you might say, "I owe you an apology."

Your partner's been texting you and you've ignored

the messages because you're so busy.

"Oi, you ignored all my messages last week."

"Oh, you're right. I'm sorry, I owe you an apology."

"I was just so overwhelmed and busy at work,

I shouldn't have ignored you."

Okie-dokie, let's move on.

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Finally, let's look at more formal situations.

And I'm thinking here, for example, with a customer,

where you wanna really make sure that you apologize deeply

and that you carry on the relationship.

You may say, "Please accept my sincerest apologies."

It could be, please accept my apologies.

But if you want to pour it on and be really emphatic,

"Please accept my sincerest apologies."

For example, imagine you send them an invoice.

This is actually to a customer, right?

You send them the invoice, they've bought something,

but the invoice is full of mistakes.

And they say, they get on the phone and say, "Listen."

They want to complain.

"Listen, I'm sorry, but there were a lot of errors

in this invoice and I'm not happy about it."

"Oh, sir, please accept my sincerest apologies."

"We'll review it straight away,

and send you a corrected version, sorry about that."

You can put them all together, right?

You can mix them and add them,

depending how much you want to emphasize

and how much you value the relationship.

The last one, this is a formal situation

and we're coming back to, I'm sorry,

and we use this at a funeral.

If someone has died or passed away,

and you want to say something to the family about,

you want to give your condolences, right?

You would say, "I'm sorry for your loss,"

or "My deepest condolences."

But the most general one, "I'm sorry for your loss."

Hopefully you don't need to use that, but useful to know.

I'm sorry for your loss.

That then are different ways

of apologizing and using, sorry.

So there we have different ways to apologize

and to use sorry, informally,

more formally, and very formally.

If you've liked this video,

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What are you gonna do next? Well, download the free PDF.

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you can download it straight away.

You can review the language.

Practice saying the words out loud,

just repeating the phrases, and then starting using them

when you have an opportunity to practice.

Remember, practice makes perfect.

That's it for today, thank you so much for watching.

And I'll see you in the next video.

Take care, my friend. Bye-Bye.

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