How to Apologise in English

so I was on Facebook the other day and I was just looking through my newsfeed when I saw a post from a friend and it said thanks so much everyone for the birthday wishes I quickly looked at when it was from yesterday I'd missed his birthday does that make me a bad friend probably so I had to apologize immediately I sent this message dude I'm so sorry I forgot your birthday I'm an absolute idiot are you free for drinks this week thankfully he said yes and it was all ok but I felt like such an idiot so how did I actually apologize to my friend what words did I use well I said I'm so sorry I forgot your birthday I'm so sorry that's so adds emphasis it shows just how sorry I was so if you're in a situation where you've made a big mistake or it's quite a serious mistake then we use so to add emphasis I'm so sorry other words we can use there are I'm terribly sorry I'm really sorry I'm very sorry I'm genuinely sorry to use any kind of modifier there to add emphasis to your words thankfully it was all okay my mate forgave me and we went for a drink and everything was fine I want to look today guys at how to apologize in certain situations in English so we're going to do all that right after this [Music] welcome easy-to-miss to another lesson with me Tom if you have a memory my name is Tom and I teach fresh modern British English so that you can take your English to the next level now before we get going guys if you haven't already please become a subscriber so you don't miss any of my lessons and hit the notification bell okay this means that YouTube will tell you when I release a new video so you could be the first to watch it so make sure you hit that notification Bell fantastic okay so we're going to look at four other situations where you might need to apologize in English and I'm gonna give you some really useful phrases to help you to do that this is gonna be really useful guys so let's get going okay let's think about when you make a small mistake what can you say so okay let's say you spill your friend's drink on the table and it goes everywhere how are you going to apologize well I might say something like I'm sorry such an idiot let me clear it up so I'd say I'm sorry that's that's the apology I'd also add a little insult to myself there so I'd say I'm such an idiot now in British culture we do that quite a lot we kind of insult ourselves maybe just to add emphasis to our apology also to show that we understand that we've been an idiot in this situation I'm so sorry such an idiot and you know why did I do that so it's a way to soften the whole thing to make the apology seem more genuine and to recognize that we've behaved in a silly way or in an idiotic way now obviously you know what it it's so pure self too much but yeah just saying I'm such an idiot that that will do that's enough what about if let's say you miss your friends phone call they're trying to call you and you miss it you could call them back and say oh sorry about that I was in the gym sorry about that I was in the gym sorry about that it's quite a nice way to apologize as well if you want to be more informal I mean those are quite informal if you want to be more informal you could say my bad my bad this is definitely an Americanism that has come into British English but yeah again it's just saying it's my fault whatever the thing is for example let's say your waiter brings you the wrong drink and you say oh sorry I didn't order a coca-cola they say oh my bad let me get you your drink my bad let me get you your drink so they're they're just saying that's my fault I recognize that let me let me sort that out for you so yeah it's an informal way to say it's my fault I'm sorry okay what about those social situations where you bump into someone or you make a little mistake in in public what would you say well if I bumped into someone I'd say oh pardon me or oh excuse me that's quite nice pardon me excuse me or simply sorry oh sorry in British culture we say sorry all the time I mean for anything even if it's not even our fault if somebody bumps into me I would say I'm sorry sorry for getting in your way which is kind of crazy if they bumped into me and it's their fault I'm still apologizing whether this is British culture I don't understand why but it makes us feel good now what about if I do something socially awkward so what if I burped pardon me all right apologies for that one I'm sorry about that one easy tumors but yes when you do something socially awkward like that burping or whatever you can say pardon me or excuse me will my apologies as well my apology is quite good all right now you remember when I said that British people loved to apologize as well we love to apologize for giving bad news so if we're telling someone something that we know they're not going to be happy about we're not apologize first and we use the phrase I'm afraid I'm afraid this is the way that we soften the bad news by kind of apologizing I'm afraid so for example somebody asks you for a phone charger you might say I'm afraid I don't have one I'm afraid I don't have one and we're apologizing for this bad news I don't have the phone charger I'm afraid I don't have a phone charger so yeah the apology comes there only today I was waiting for a train of the London the ground and there was an announcement on the system and they said I'm afraid to say that there is a delay on the underground today I'm afraid to say there was a delay on the underground today so they're giving us bad news there's a delay but they soften that by saying I'm afraid so there's a way to apologize for bad news okay in the final situation is maybe a more formal situation and maybe more serious so most of them that we've looked at today have been quite informal what about when we need to be genuinely apologetic and say it in a formal way so we've got a few phrases that would suit this perfectly I'd like to apologise and then for the action so I'd like to apologize for my behavior for example I'd like to apologize for my behavior or I want to apologize for my behavior so I look I want to apologize for and then the thing that happens so for my behavior for my late reply for what happened yesterday whenever it might be it's for and then the thing another nice phrase I owe you an apology I owe you an apology so again it's saying I'm sorry this is you know I genuinely know that I'm sorry I owe you an apology again we're using fullness so I owe you an apology for and then the thing for my behavior I want to say I'm sorry as well as another nice phrase I want to say I'm sorry again I want to say I'm sorry for and then the action and finally please accept my apologies please accept my apologies now we could add an extra adjective in there so please accept my sincerest apologies or please accept my deepest apologies that just kind of adds emphasis to it and so strengthens it so please accept my apologies for and then the thing so please accept my apologies for being late so these are all really nice formal ways to apologize they could be spoken or they could be written a lot of these might be in an email of some kind if you're apologizing in an email you could use all these phrases as well have you found that lesson four guys let me know in the comments below let me know if you've had to apologize in English perform when did you do it why did you do it and what language did you use to do it let me know in the comments below if you've enjoyed this video guys please give it a big thumbs up and share it with anyone that you know anyone that you know is learning English whether it's a friend or a family member please share this with them and of course make sure you hit the subscribe button so you don't miss any of my lessons room I've got new lessons every Tuesday and every Friday teaching you fresh modern British English this is Tom the chief dreamer saying goodbye

Channel: Eat Sleep Dream English

Views: 49,296

Keywords: learn english, sorry, english sorry, sorry english, how to say sorry, apologise english, how to apologise in english, apology, my apology, english expressions, saying sorry, how to apologize, british accent, english teacher, apologize, say sorry, english class, britsh english, lo sieto ingles, sorry in english, apologise in english, apologizing

Id: MbD_Myis9i0

Length: 8min 48sec (528 seconds)

Published: Tue Nov 21 2017