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
as you can see yeah we have we have like
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one big one is this some of you I’ve
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so the idea here is that we can practice
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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
yes okay cool so this week is the
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okay thank you good
all right shall we move along sorry
clanking sounds okay cool
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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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it’s like a set of things it’s not just
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this is like travel expressions things
you can say at the airport I showed you
this before so like how to give someone
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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
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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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you very much as always for joining us
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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