5 ways to say sorry - Polite English

Hi. My name is Rebecca, and in today's lesson, I'm going to show you several different ways

in which you can apologize to someone if you've done something wrong, and also what to say

when someone says sorry to you. Okay? We've all been in this situation, and we've been

on both sides of that situation, so let's have a look at some of the expressions we

use in English to express our regret or our sorrow that we did something. All right? Let's

get started.

Okay. So, the simplest way to say that you're sorry is just to say, "Sorry." It's also the

shortest. All right? This is when you haven't done something very seriously wrong. It's

when you've done a little something wrong. Maybe you stepped on someone's foot, or you

got in someone's way, or bumped into them, so we could just say, "Sorry." And what would

the reply to that be? You could say something like, "That's okay." Or, "That's all right."

Or, "No problem. No worries. Don't worry about it. It's all good." All right? "It's all good"

is kind of slang. You can use that. "That's fine." All right? This is obviously an informal

situation because you're not saying very much. You're just saying, "Sorry." Okay? All right.

If you want to make it a little bit more personal, you want to say, "I'm sorry." All right? It's

just making it a little bit more like it's coming from you rather than just saying, "Sorry."

You might want to say, "I'm sorry" if you forget a friend's birthday, for example, or

if you kept a friend waiting. A little more personal situation. All right?

Now, as you can see, the arrows here get a little bit longer because as the situation

becomes more serious, you kind of have to say much more when you apologize. If it's

just a little problem, you're just going to say, "Sorry." But as the problem gets more

serious, you need to say a little bit more. So let's look at how that goes. So here, we're

saying, "I'm so sorry." Okay? It's a little bit more serious. Or you could use a lot of

other adjectives there. "I'm really sorry." "I'm very sorry." "I'm terribly sorry." "I'm

deeply sorry." "I'm extremely sorry." Okay? These are obviously a little bit more serious

situations. Right? Maybe you've hurt someone. Maybe you've lied to someone. Not you, or

you know, hypothetically. Or maybe somebody was betrayed. It's going to become a little

bit more serious. Right? And in that case, it's up to you how you respond. Right? You

could say, "Apology accepted." You could say, "All is forgiven." You could also say, "I

forgive you." Now, sometimes people do add other things like, "Well, but don't do it

next time." Or, "Okay, but don't forget my birthday again." Or else. Okay? So sometimes

we joke about it to try to get over the awkwardness, the sadness of the situation, and that can

help us to get back to a little more harmony in our relationships. Okay? All right.

Now, sometimes we go a little bit further, and we explain why we're sorry. Okay? Or what

we're sorry about, and give a little more information. So you can do that in two ways.

You could say, "I'm sorry about the mess." For example. Right? You made a mess in your

room, so you say to your roommate, "I'm sorry about the mess." So with "about", you have

to use a noun. All right? If you wanted to say the sentence a little bit differently,

you would say, "I'm sorry for making a mess." All right? "I'm sorry for making a mess."

"I'm sorry about the mess." Another example of that would be, "I'm sorry about the confusion."

Or, "I'm sorry for causing so much confusion." All right? You see the difference in these

two situations. Okay. All right.

Now, what do we do in a little more formal situation? Well, in a formal situation, you're

going to have to use different -- a different tone, and some slightly different words. For

example, "My apologies." "I apologize for ruining your carpet." Okay? Or, "My apologies

for being late." And the response is going to be equally formal in tone, but still forgiving.

You could say, "That's quite all right." Or, "No harm done." "No need to apologize." That's

probably the nicest thing you could say to somebody who apologizes to you. "No need to

apologize." Let's say you were late, and you say, "My apologies for being late." The other

person answers, "No need to apologize. Come on in and join the party." Okay? Something

like that. Now, there's also another situation, and this

is a little bit different. This is when we use the term "I'm sorry" or "sorry" to sympathize

with someone. Okay? Let me give you an example. "I'm sorry you lost your job. Please let me

know if I can help in any way." Right? So here, you haven't done anything wrong, but

you're using the term "sorry" to express your sympathy to someone. Or, "I'm so sorry for

your loss. Is there anyone you'd like me to notify?" Okay? This is obviously a very serious

situation. Somebody has died. Somebody has passed away. So we say, "I'm so sorry for

your loss." And then, usually we try to say a little something else. "Is there anyone

you'd like me to notify?" Or, "I'm sorry you've been unwell. How can I help?" Okay?

So I hope these important expressions will help you to improve the relationships you

have in your personal life and in your professional life as well. Okay? If you'd like to do a

quiz on this or many other topics in English, please go to our website, www.engvid.com.

All right? And remember that it's really important also not only to say "sorry", but the way

you say "sorry" is very important, so the tone of your voice is going to be very important.

Obviously, if you said, "I'm sorry" or "I'm sorry", there's a bit of a difference. So

remember not only to use the words, but also the right feeling from your heart, which would

be reflected in the way that you apologize to someone. All right? I hope you don't need

to say "sorry" too much. Until next time, I'll see you and all the best with your English.

Bye for now.