How to Say Sorry in English Basic English Phrases

cool begin hi everybody welcome back to

our weekly live stream my name is Alisha

and today we’re going to talk about ways

to say you’re sorry we’re going to talk

about a lot of different ways of

apologizing today we have a lot to do

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we’re going to start so today’s topic is

how would you say sorry I’m going to

talk about three different categories of

apology and then we’re going to enjoy

the rest of our time together

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one big one is this some of you I’ve

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Wow I see a lot of people in the chat

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arjan and it is just easy in my and

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there are a lot of names okay anyway

today we’re talking about ways of

apologizing how to say you’re sorry

so okay okay good I have to get used to

this new setup I think but anyway this

is today’s topic this expression I’m

terribly sorry

we’ll talk about this a little bit later

so let’s begin today’s lesson then I’ll

slow down by speaking we have three

groups as you can see there are three

groups for today’s lesson I separated

our different apologies so the first

category for today is expressions you

can use when you make a mistake you

caused a problem you did something bad

how do you apologize for that second

we’ll talk about ways to express

sympathy so if you hear bad news how do

you express your sympathy that you feel

bad for someone else

third we’ll talk about casual apologies

and stuff you can use for like quick

like bad news situations so these are

our three groups for today let’s begin

over here some review I think for most

of you so first when you make a mistake

when you make a mistake which camera on

that one okay cool thank you so when you

make a mistake of course the easiest one

to remember the basic form is just sorry

just say sorry casual it’s quick it’s

easy to remember this is the most basic

apology for sure if you want to make a

full sentence from your apology just a

time so I’m sorry I’m sorry

so this is again quick it sounds a

little more polite than just I’m sorry

so use don’t don’t type it mean you can

say words right no he can’t talk to me

okay

sorry our control our control team is

right behind the camera you can’t see

okay so I’m sorry I’m so sorry

so you can add so to increase like the

intensity to increase the level of your

apology

it’s however thanks if however you’re in

a more formal situation I’m terribly

sorry

it’s like saying I’m so sorry or I’m

super sorry but you can use this in a

more formal situation so for example a

business email or like in I don’t know a

like a client relationship if you make a

mistake you can say I’m terribly sorry

okay and if you have questions send them

in the chat this is quick review okay

good

next one is I apologize I apologize is

more formal than I’m sorry so quick

point here a grammar point in this

expression we have I’m sorry this is the

contracted form of I am so

I am sorry however this word apologize

this is a verb sorry is an adjective I

am sorry

describes your emotion right now so hmm

and then I apologize is a verb this is

my action that I’m taking okay

shall we fix that okay all right

then the last two in this group I want

to move on to our sorry about that

sorry about that this part about that we

use about that when the problem is clear

so you made some mistake at work for

example and you want to express an

apology specifically for that problem

use sorry about that

so that means that problem specifically

um Pablo on YouTube nice one you wrote I

deeply sorry but just like with this

expression when you use sorry and you

want to like level up the apology I’m

deeply sorry I’m deeply sorry remember

this is an adjective so you need to

include your verb I am but nice one um

junior what about I’m sorry I screwed up

yeah nice one I’m sorry I’m sorry

you can add here I screwed up to screw

up nice one junior to screw up this one

is the past tense form up screw up why

just you on the chair oh sorry oh that’s

perfect I screwed up means I made a

mistake but it’s a casual mistake I

screwed up pardon me extreme English

says pardon me yeah I will explain that

now along with excuse me so what’s the

difference between sorry and excuse me

excuse me is used when you’re

interrupting someone like a stranger on

the street excuse me you need help with

something in a store excuse me you can

use pardon me as well but pardon me

sounds a lot more formal we don’t really

use

it’s so much in American English so I

would recommend excuse me instead

someone in YouTube says sorry that I

betrayed you before that’s a rather

serious apology like you just you did

something really really bad to the other

person I can’t think of many situations

where I would use that so yeah okay how

much okay okay um good it is about ten

minutes in so that’s kind of our quick

review of stuff you maybe already know

so we’ll take a break there I think um

yeah looks good to me

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thanks Damon great alright so as always

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um this week oh we go to this camera now

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okay thank you good

all right shall we move along sorry

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let’s go

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today’s lesson hi everybody that’s just

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sorry ways of apologizing so if you’re

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appreciate it okay um let’s continue

then we’re about 12 minutes in so are

you going to show that cool so this is

our topic how would you say you’re sorry

I’m terribly sorry

we reviewed a moment ago okay what okay

let’s move along then let’s go to the

second topic sorry I’m in the way let’s

go to this second group the second group

of apology words or apology expressions

for today these are expressions of

sympathy so if you missed it don’t worry

you can watch this video back but the

first group this is like expressions you

can use when you made a mistake but in

this group of expressions we’re going to

talk about expressions where like you

hear bad news or someone else made a

mistake and you want to say sorry

for them if that makes sense so let’s

take a look let’s begin with this one

I’m sorry to hear that I’m sorry to hear

that if there’s one thing from this

week’s live lesson you remember that’s

new

I hope it’s this expression so what’s

the difference I’m sorry to hear that

and I’m sorry about that

a lot of students mix these two up mix

them up means like they confuse the two

they don’t understand the difference so

sorry about that and sorry to hear that

are different expressions sorry to hear

that we use this for bad news so you

hear like someone has a problem at work

for example or like they lost something

important to them you can say I’m sorry

to hear that I’m sorry to hear that if

you say I’m sorry about that it sounds

like you think you caused the problem or

like you made the mistake so please use

I’m sorry to hear that

when you get bad news or when you hear

someone else’s bad news I’m sorry you

hear that okay um

next one we’ll look at the next two are

actually for someone else causing a

problem you want to say you’re sorry so

this is kind of specific these two so

let’s read them first there sorry about

him or sorry about her and please excuse

him or please excuse her so when would

we use this like if you imagine for

example you’re out with your friends and

maybe one friend is a little too noisy

or makes a rude comment or something

strange happens you feel embarrassed

your friend does not apologize but you

want to make an apology you feel bad so

you can say sorry about him like sorry

about his behavior in other words or

sorry about her behavior sorry about

something that person did so when you

use about him or about her it means not

me but I want to apology

is because of someone in my group so you

can use sorry about him or sorry about

her to do that someone wrote I’m sorry

about Alicia what did I do

hey hey okay the other one is uh please

excuse him or please excuse her this is

what you can use to apologize for

someone else however this is a good

expression to use if let’s say someone

feels sick and they quickly need to

leave an event you can say please excuse

him please excuse her like they didn’t

do anything like rude necessarily

however there’s some change in the plan

so you can use excuse him so this is

quite similar to excuse me right same

thing but instead of asking forgiveness

for yourself you’re asking forgiveness

for some other person’s behavior here so

excuse him excuse her okay good

Sarah on Facebook it says or your child

yeah you could use this for your kids as

well for sure nice one Carlos I’m a

little nervous why am i angry no we have

a new setup I’m getting used to the new

setup okay

but let’s continue on to the next two

expressions going back to this

expressing sympathy theme this first one

is we apologize for the inconvenience

this is a really common expression in

like construction situations so if

you’ve seen a construction site

construction site is a place where

they’re making a new building they’re

creating something new in your city you

might see this on a sign we apologize

for the inconvenience

so inconvenience means like a change in

your regular routine we apologize for

making a problem in your day and

inconvenience so this is using we here

you can use this same expression for

like business emails as well so if you

make a mistake in a business email or

there’s a delay

in an order you can say we apologize for

the inconvenience okay good

then let’s go on to the last one for

this category which is we regret to

inform you we regret to inform you this

one is popular popular this one is

common on rejection letters rejection

letters especially rejection letters

from universities so by this I mean if

you make an application to a university

and you are your application is declined

the University says no the typical

response is a letter and the first line

the beginning of the letter says we

regret regret to inform you we regret to

inform you your application has been

declined okay good

shall we take another break ish okay I

will check comments do you guys have any

questions ah let’s see Oh someone on

Facebook just said something excuse me

sorry for that or it I’m not sure can

you help me Taher I’m not sure what your

question is can you say it again um

excuse me is the same as sorry for that

mm not necessarily we use excuse me when

we want to like ask forgiveness like we

want to interrupt someone or like maybe

apologize for stepping on their foot on

the train for example yeah okay yeah on

YouTube someone writes we regret to

inform you that you are fired

Wow that would not be a good day to get

that um no Henry what does it mean I

don’t know um nice okay I don’t see any

other questions so let’s move along to

our break yes yes okay

all right if you missed it before we’ve

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we’ve got free stuff for you guys this

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this is like travel expressions things

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well alright okay awesome possum then

let’s continue on to the third thing we

are doing today which is casual casual

ways to apologize all right I have three

things here three things only but we’re

going to talk about some nuances stand

by one okay let’s move along

first one for this category so I’ve

labeled this casual apologies and bad

news

so these apologies over here these are

like polite apologies or like proper

apologies a full sentence apology

however if it’s just a small mistake or

it’s just an expression that you want to

use like you hurt yourself or something

quick these are expressions we use first

one is oops so you might hear oops with

like a long you sound oops or you might

hear a short one oops oops we use both

it’s up to you both are fine you might

also hear another variation that has a W

sound which is whoops whoops so oops and

whoops and oops these are all words we

use for like really really small

mistakes and we say this we say this to

ourselves I probably use these words a

lot in this live stream I think like for

really small mistakes like an example

it’s like I dropped something oops

or like I I drew on this chair earlier

and I think I said oops something

similar you’ll see it later so when you

make a small mistake you can say oops or

whoops another kind of funny thing this

word some people will try to downplay to

downplay means to make something seem

less serious than it actually is

so some people try to downplay their

mistakes by using the word oops or

whoops like if you’ve seen it you might

have seen it in a movie I suppose but if

someone makes a serious mistake this is

like discovered by someone else and the

response from this person is oops

like they’re trying to make it sound

less serious than it is so oops and

whoops these are used for really really

small mistakes if you use it for a big

mistake

it sounds like insincere or like you’re

not taking the situation seriously

good okay um

Abu on Facebook says only these no

probably not actually I’m not talking

about curse words today that’s that’s a

whole other room of ways to express

sympathy sort of okay but for now let’s

continue on to another expression

perhaps a more American way of

apologizing this expression is my bad my

bad

we almost always use the same intonation

when we say this my bad not my bad but

my bad oh my bad that kind of expression

my bad

so this we use when we make a mistake so

here bad means my bad behavior or a bad

action or a bad decision so this is a

very useful expression but very very

casual so again like with oops or whoops

we don’t use this for serious mistakes

my bad is used like something small

again you forgot something small like

you forgot to buy milk at the store for

example oh my bad I will go and get more

so something really really small my bad

we don’t really change this to your bad

or his bad or her bad we almost always

use my bad my god so this is my mistake

sorry about that

this is like sorry about that but the

much more casual version my bad my bad

my mistake okey dokey okay I don’t see

any questions in chat uh can I need your

sorry phrase I’m not sure what that

means

Oh Doha Martha I’m not sure I’m not sure

when do the summer holidays start I

don’t know is that related to this

listen I don’t know okay hi mozzie oh

sorry

Junior asks what does may I be excused

ah nice question jr. I will write it

here so this is our bonus stuff for

today thanks jr. may I be excused this

is something we use usually in group

situations when you want to leave when

you want to leave somewhere you could

say excuse me like if for example you

want to use the restroom

you can say excuse me for a moment for

example before you do that so may I be

excused it’s usually used when you want

to leave like a dinner like a formal

dinner or perhaps like in a classroom

situation where you’re in there like a

discussion for example may I be excused

this really means this is a formal

expression for can I leave can I leave

but you’re asking permission here

may I so is it okay if I leave

essentially nice one other things

teacher what is your name my name is

Alicia

uh yeah Brazilian guy you’re onto our

next one my dad wouldn’t let me go to

the gym someone else says that sucks

dude yeah all right let’s go on to the

next expression here that sucks that

sucks but be careful I lost your comment

but that sucks there’s nothing here not

that’s but that that so that means your

situation the problem you are

experiencing sucks means it’s not good

it’s it’s not great it’s too bad so if

it’s difficult for you to remember this

expression which is very common and

quite casual you can imagine this

situation is like sucking is removing

like the happiness or the good things

from that person’s life that sucks so

very casual so don’t use this at work I

don’t recommend this

work we will not talk about that one I

don’t think okay so I would not

recommend using this at work you can use

this with your friends perhaps with your

colleagues would we say this at work

do we see this work I say this to you so

it depends it depends a little bit on

who you’re talking to

[Music]

you can use you can use this with

friends but make sure it’s always that

that sucks or another point this is one

you use for your friends situation that

sucks

so just as we use like this and that for

like something close to you and

something far from you thank you when

you want to talk about something that’s

close to you like your own personal

situation and it’s not good you can use

it sucks like I just found out my rent

is going to increase it sucks so when

you use it sucks

it means like that’s your problem it’s

your situation that’s not good when

you’re talking about a situation related

to your friend you can say that sucks

that sucks so good one all right what

our other sorry phrase is used in slang

um other apologies I feel like we don’t

have that many slang apology so we have

lots of slang for like when you hurt

yourself

not so many for like apologies or

sympathies that sucks is pretty good and

there are some expressions we cannot

talk about on this livestream because

they are very rude words so you’ll have

to Google Google some English curse

words you can you can do that it’s not

an official recommendation from the

channel okay

yeah then say sorry after yeah yes yeah

so say your curse word then say sorry

pardon my french that’s a good one

okay we have to finish I think yeah yeah

pardon my what okay oh my gosh it’s

crumbling it’s crumbling let’s finish

there okay all right we have to end

there

before we get into too much curse word

territory so let’s finish up today sorry

today’s lesson sorry if you missed the

lesson today we talked about ways to say

you’re sorry uh you can’t see right now

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yes this is live the live is about to

finish so if you miss this week’s live

lesson you can find us again next week

next week we will be back at the same

time same channel the date oh my gosh

the date August 1st is it really already

August Wow no no that’s not right

oh no it’s at the bottom it’s at the

bottom sorry I assumed you would be at

the bottom I put it down there anyway

next week’s topic will be famous English

quotes famous English quotes so I’m

choosing or I have chosen actually some

really famous quotes from like different

people in different industries so they

might be movie clothes or like quotes

from politicians perhaps but I’m going

to explain what they mean stuff that you

might hear or you might have heard

before so we’re going to talk about some

of those quotes and what do they mean

are you sure it’s August 1st really not

okay huh

mmm I see Wow time flies okay anyway

this will be back next week Wednesday at

10:00 p.m. Eastern Standard Time 10:00

p.m. Eastern Standard Time is New York

City time what’s up there it is actually

July 25th that’s what I thought I was

trying to do math and it was confusing

anyway July 25th this is actually July

25th

I’m surprised friends anyway next week

Wednesday 10 p.m. Eastern Standard Time

is New York City time so please Google

your cities time so you can join us for

next week’s lesson yeah next week’s

lesson will be famous English quotes yes

perfect now it is July 25th that is the

corrected day thank you okay Stephanie

my accent I have an American accent a

west coast American accent thank you for

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Carlos thanks for the materials awesome

enjoy I hope it’s helpful 40 knots oh

yeah you caught my die on there sorry

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please join us again next week for

famous English quotes until then enjoy

your day enjoy your night enjoy your

weekend good luck with your studies and

we’ll see you again soon

you

you