Excuse me, are you there?
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Hi, guys! And welcome to Series English!
My name is Antonia Romaker.
And today we are going to talk about the difference between
Excuse me and Sorry.
These two are rather confusing sometimes,
well to some of my students at least.
That's why I've decided to clear things out today.
And let's talk about them briefly.
First of all to sum up I would like to say that
Excuse me is usually used before you do something
slightly embarrassing or rude,
so before there's some embarrassment involved,
before you've done some inconvenience.
And sorry is used after you've done something wrong,
or somebody has got hurt.
Excuse me is before something bag happens
and sorry is after something bad happens.
Let's take a look at an example.
Excuse me! Could I get past?
Oh, sorry! Have I stepped on your foot?
So here you want to get past.
And before you do it you say excuse me.
And here you have already done something wrong,
you have stepped on somebody's foot and you say:
Oh, sorry! Have I stepped on your foot?
By the way pardon or pardon me is sometimes used
instead of excuse me.
Now let's take a look at these two guys closely.
Now let's take a look at several functions of the phrase Excuse me.
Firstly you can politely get somebody's attention.
So for instance you are in a library
and you want the assistant to help you find some information.
She's busy with something and then you come to her and say:
Excuse me, could you help me please?
I'm looking for a book about Batman.
Well so you get somebody's attention.
Secondly you can interrupt somebody
and when you want to do it politely
you'd better use the phrase excuse me.
Let's say you are in the street and you are lost.
You can come up to a group of people
who are having some kind of a discussion and you say:
Excuse me, could you help me please? I'm lost.
By the way you can also say here
I'm terribly sorry to interrupt.
It's possible well because the minute you finish the phrase
actually you have already interrupted.
And that's why you are sorry.
So you are saying sorry for what you have just done.
But excuse me is also possible here
and actually very common.
Thirdly you can use it to ask somebody to move,
when you want to get past.
So I have already given you an example.
Telling you are leaving.
Well this is not that common but still you can say:
Excuse me, we need to go, buy!
Now as for sorry it has three basic functions.
Firstly you can emphasize how bad, stupid or embarrassing
something is.
Sorry your dress is ruined, this is all my fault.
Feeling sadness or sympathy.
It can be connected with the first one actually.
I'm sorry you've lost your friend.
Well actually you haven't lost him.
He has just moved to another country.
You can still communicate.
Thirdly when you are disappointed about something
wishing you could change it.
I'm sorry I spent all my money on shopping.
I wish I could get it back.
Now as for pardon me
it's a formal way of saying excuse me and sometimes I'm sorry.
When you do not hear or understand what somebody says to you
Sorry? What? Pardon me?
But if you use Excuse me here
It can mean a different thing.
When you actually understand and hear
but you do not like what you hear, you say:
Excuse me?
What have you just said? Are you crazy?
You are in trouble.
When you do not like what somebody has just said
excuse me is your option.
I'm sorry to be the one to bring it to you, but
your car has been stolen.
Sorry is sometimes used
when you have said something incorrect
and then you want to correct yourself.
Turn left. Oh, sorry! No, right! Turn right!
Sorry is used to refuse an offer, for example.
Are you coming?
Sorry no. I've been terribly busy
and I need to rush to the doctor now.
It is also used to disagree with someone.
For example
I'm sorry but I find it really hard to believe.
Sometimes these expressions can be really confusing.
But I want you to understand the difference between
excuse me and sorry clearly.
The basic difference is connected with time.
So if you have any questions feel free to write to me.
I will try to answer as soon as possible.
But I hope that you found this class useful
and you understand the difference now.
Also do not forget to like this video if you actually liked it.
Subscribe to my YouTube channel. And I hope to see you soon!
Happy English and Russian practice. Bye!
I;m sorry that I haven't been releasing a lot of videos lately.
I will try to work harder!