Ways of Apologizing in English

Hello, guys. How are you doing today? I hope you are all doing just fine. Well, here we are again with ago Inglês na Ponta da Língua podcast. And today I want to talk to you about ways of apologizing in English. Você pode fazer o download gratuito dos arquivos de texto e áudio clicando nos links abaixo. Para ouvir dire to no site ou no email basta clicar no botão play na caixa de áudio abaixo. Com podcasts você tem a chance de praticar o listening, a leitura, a pronúncia e muito mais. Bom aprendizado para você.

Apologizing is a very important thing to learn when you are learning a second language. And why’s that? Well, you know there will always be those moments when you will have to apologize for something you’ve done or said. So, let’s take a look at ways of apologizing in English.

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I’d say the most common way of apologizing in English is by saying “Sorry” or “I’m sorry”. There is no secret here. These are used when you have done something which has upset someone or caused them difficulties, or when you bump into them accidentally.

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• I’m really sorry if I said anything wrong.
• I’m sorry, I forgot.
• I’m sorry. I can’t meet you tomorrow.

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You can find many more examples with “sorry” by carrying out a search on Google or by looking it up on a good dictionary. Apart from “sorry”, there are, of course, other ways of apologizing, so let’s learn them.

When the situation requires something more polite and formal, then you’d better say “I’d like to apologize for…”. Listen to these examples:

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• I’d like to apologize for saying that. I didn’t mean it, ok?
• I’d like to apologize for any inconvenience I may have caused you.
• I’d like to apologize for not going to your reception.
• I’d like to apologize for what happened yesterday. I don’t know what came over me.

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Let’s now imagine that you did something accidentally. That is, you did not do it on purpose. In such situations, there are two things you may say: “Excuse me” or “I beg your pardon”. Remember: you may use them when you accidentally do something. Other examples:

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• Excuse me, but there’s a phone call for you.
• Oh, excuse me, I didn’t see you standing there.
• I beg your pardon, I didn’t mean to interrupt you.
• I beg your pardon. I thought you were someone else.

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In case you treat someone badly, for example by blaming them for something they actually didn’t do it, what you may say is: “I owe you an apology”.

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• Hey, Mike, I guess I owe you an apology, you know.
• Look, I owe you an apology for the things I said about your work.
• Well, I really owe you an apology. I think I overreacted.

Another way of apologizing in more formal situations or when making an apology in an official announcement is “Please, accept my apologies”. If a company or group of people is the one apologizing, then you may hear “Please, accept our apologies”. Listen to some examples:

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• We accept that this was the company’s fault and ask you to accept our sincere apologies.
• My apologies if I have offended you in any way.
• My apologies if I have misunderstood your intentions.

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As I said before, learning ways of apologizing is important when learning a second language. However, it’s also important to learn what to say when you accept an apology. So, there you go a list of some of the things you may hear or say as responses to apologies.

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• Oh, come on, it’s ok.
• Apologies accepted.
• Well, we all make mistakes, don’t we?
• No problem.
• There’s nothing to apologize for. 
• No hard feelings, right?

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Well guys, that’s all for today’s podcast. I hope you’ve enjoyed the tips. Remember that you can download other episodes on www.inglesnapontadalingua.com.br. You can also keep learning more English on our Facebook fanpage. Just go to www.facebook.com/inglesnapontadalingua and hit like. Get ready for the next podcast, guys. Take care.