An English Lesson: What to say after someone says, "I'm sorry!"

Hi Bob the Canadian here.

Welcome to this English lesson.

Have you ever had it where someone apologized

to you in English or someone said sorry to you in English?

And did you know what to say afterwards?

Well in this English lesson

I will go over eight different phrases

that you can use after somebody apologizes to you,

or after they say sorry to you in English.

(upbeat music)

Well hey, welcome to this little English lesson

on what to say after someone apologizes to you in English.

If this is your first time here though don't forget to click

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and give me a thumbs up at some point during this video

if it's helping you learn just a little bit more English.

So what I'm going to try and do is

give you eight different situations

where someone might apologize to you.

And then give you the best phrase I think

that you should use in that situation.

The first example would be if someone forgets your birthday.

Maybe your birthday is on July 1st and it is now July 2nd

and your brother has not phoned you

to say happy birthday to you.

Maybe on July 2nd the phone rings and it's your brother.

And your brother says, "I'm sorry I forgot your birthday."

Two things you could say, "It's ok!" or "That's ok!"

Those would both be great responses in a situation

where someone forgets your birthday.

Hopefully people don't forget your birthday too often.

For our second phrase let's imagine a situation

where you are sitting at a restaurant

waiting for a friend of yours to meet you.

Maybe you have planned to have lunch together at one o'clock

and the clock is ticking and your friend is late.

When your friend shows up they might say

"I'm sorry I'm late I had a few things

to take care of at work

and it was hard for me to get here on time."

You could respond by saying, "Hey, it happens!"

That is a great way to make your friend feel at ease.

I'm assuming you're not upset that they're late

if you respond that way.

And I would say that is just a great way

to accept their apology for being late.

For our third way to respond to an apology,

let's imagine that your car is in the garage being repaired

and the mechanic told you

that they would have your car done by four o'clock.

Maybe your mechanic phones you and says,

"We're sorry your car isn't going to be done until five."

A great way to respond would be to say,

"That's no problem!" or "That's not a problem!"

Because hopefully you can wait

just one more hour to have your car repaired.

For our fourth phrase let's imagine a situation

where a friend of yours has borrowed your car

and when they return your car they say, "Hey,

thank you so much for letting me borrow your car,

but I'm sorry I forgot to put a little bit

of gas in the gas tank."

You would just say to them, "It's cool!"

Hopefully that's what you would say to your friend.

Usually when you borrow someone's car

it is nice to put a little bit of gas in the tank.

But if your friend was genuinely sorry

and said, "I'm sorry I forgot to put

a little bit of gas in the tank."

It would be very nice of you to just say, "Hey, it's cool!"

For our fifth phrase let's imagine a situation

where you lent your phone to a friend

and while they were using it they dropped it

on the ground and broke it.

If it was an old phone

and if you were planning to buy a new phone anyways,

when your friend says, "I'm so sorry I dropped your phone

on the ground and broke it!"

You could respond by saying, "Don't worry about it

I was going to buy a new one next week anyways."

Or there's a shorter form of don't worry about it

which is, "No worries!"

We often in English in an informal way

will respond to someone who apologizes by saying,

"Ah, no worries, I was going to buy

a new one next week anyways."

I'm not sure what you would say though if your phone

was brand new and your friend dropped it on the ground.

But I'll let you think about that one.

For our sixth phrase imagine you're at a busy subway station

and someone bumps into you and they say,

of course, "I'm sorry!"

a great response would be to say, "It's all good."

When someone bumps into you and you don't get hurt

and they say that they are sorry,

when you say it's all good,

what you're saying is that it's okay,

I wasn't hurt, it was just a soft bump, everything is okay.

So a great way to respond is to say, "It's all good."

So the last two phrases I'm going

to look at at the same time.

And those phrases are, "I forgive you."

or "I accept your apology."

Both of these you would use in a more serious situation

when someone is apologizing

for something very, very serious.

A good example would be maybe a brother or sister of yours

was really mean to you when you were a kid,

and later in life as an adult

they might come and apologize to you.

They might come and say, "I just want to apologize

for being so mean to you when we were kids."

This would be a more serious apology

and therefore it merits or it deserves

a more serious response.

So you would respond to that by saying,

"I accept your apology" or "I forgive you."

Those would be two really good answers

for that type of apology.

Well hey that was just a few ways to respond in English

if someone was to apologize to you for something.

I hope that you were able to learn

just a few more English words and phrases from me today.

I'm Bob the Canadian, thank you so much for watching.

If you're new here don't forget

to click that red Subscribe button below

and give me a thumbs up if this video helped you learn

just a little bit more English.

And while you're here why don't you stick around

and watch another video or two?

I'd really appreciate it.

Have a great day.

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