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Hey everyone, so in today's lesson 
we are going to take a look at some  

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alternative phrases to say "I'm sorry," and 
in the first part of the lesson we're going  

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to take a look at different ways that 
you can say this and then we'll look a  

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bit more specifically at some informal 
and formal ways of saying it as well.

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In case you're new here I want to let you know 
that we are here to help you learn fast English  

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without getting lost, without missing 
the jokes and without subtitles. 

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Just like this fan who says that in 
six months of learning with our channel  

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and practicing he now speaks more 
like a native and more fluently. 

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that Subscribe button and the Bell down below,  

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so that you don't miss a 
single one of our new lessons.

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So before we start learning some alternative 
phrases it's important to note and to think  

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about the culture of Britain, so in the UK we do 
have a culture of politeness, we very much like  

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to apologize and you've probably seen examples 
of this in movies and TV series that you watch.

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For example, if someone bumps into you if you're 
walking in the street or on the train you will  

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probably apologize to that person, so they 
might apologize to you for bumping into you  

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but we have this culture of politeness and what 
we tend to do is just apologize for everything,  

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even when it's not our fault.

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So if you've made a mistake it's 
important to own up to that mistake  

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and all you can say is "I made 
a mistake" or "My mistake." 

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This way you are owning up to the fact that you 
made a mistake and you are apologizing for it.

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More simply you could even say 
"I apologize" or "my apologies."

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So if you've made a mistake and you really 
want to emphasize how sorry you are,  

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you could say "I'm ever so sorry," so 
this is really showing that you deeply  

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regret what happened or you deeply 
apologize for what has happened. 

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You could also say "I want to apologize to..." if 
you want to apologize to someone, so to a person,  

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or you could say "I want to 
apologize for (something)"

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So if there's a particular thing that you 
want to apologize for, then you would say  

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"I apologize for being late," for example.
And if you want to apologize to a person you  

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would say "I want to apologize to you," 
or you could say "I want to apologize  

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to my friend because I made a mistake."
Another great phrase that you can use  

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when you want to own up to something, 
you could say "I owe you an apology." 

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So that's showing someone that you've made 
a mistake and that you're owning up to it  

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and that you feel that it's necessary 
to say sorry to them and to apologize.

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One that you can use maybe when you're 
having a discussion with someone about  

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a disagreement or something that happened and 
you see that you were wrong in that situation,  

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you can simply say "I was wrong," and again this 
is another way of saying that you are sorry.

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One that sounds a little bit more dramatic 
is "I hope you can forgive me," so  

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this is kind of putting it on the other person and 
saying "I am sorry but I hope you can forgive me,  

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I hope we can move on from this," so you might 
have heard this more in TV series and movies maybe  

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when someone has broken up with someone or when 
someone has maybe cheated on the other person,  

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or maybe something not as serious as that 
as well. Maybe someone made a mistake with  

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a friend and they are feeling guilty 
or they are feeling bad about it,  

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they might say to them "I 
hope you can forgive me."

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And you could simply say "Forgive me."
So this sometimes can sound a bit  

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desperate so be careful when to use it, you 
don't want to use this one all the time,  

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because it kind of makes people think that you've 
done something really wrong that they must forgive  

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you for and by saying forgive me it sounds a 
bit desperate, so don't use this one too much.

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One that you can probably use in the 
workplace maybe if you've made a mistake,  

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you know you lost sight of something and you're 
speaking to your boss about it you could say "It  

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won't happen again," so this is confirming 
that you acknowledge that you made a mistake  

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and you are telling them that it won't happen 
again, you won't make the same mistake again.

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Now when you want to take ownership in a 
situation that you have made a mistake,  

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maybe a group of you are 
being reprimanded or told off  

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for something and you want to own up that it 
was your fault, you can say "It's my fault." 

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So you are taking responsibility for 
your actions and for what has happened.

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Do you want to understand more of these 
expressions and learn how natives really speak? 

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Then I highly recommend our 
Fluent with Friends course. 

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In this 48-week course you will learn 
with the first two seasons of Friends. 

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You'll receive PDF power lessons every week, 
vocabulary memorization software, access to our  

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Fluency Circle Global Community and so much more!
And the best part is you can try it right now for  

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FREE with our 3-Part Masterclass.
All you have to do is click up  

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here or down in the description box 
below to learn more and sign up now!

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Okay so now we're going to take a look at some 
more formal phrases or expressions that you can  

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use instead of saying "I'm sorry," and most of 
these would probably be used more in the workplace  

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or with people that you're 
not really that familiar with. 

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So you wouldn't use these with friends 
but you would use it when you want to be  

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a bit more professional or more polite with 
people that you don't really know that well. 

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So the first one is "I take full 
responsibility." "I take full  

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responsibility for my behavior," you could say.
So again this is taking ownership of the fact that  

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you've made a mistake that something is your 
fault and you are taking full responsibility.

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Again, if you've really 
made a mistake you might say  

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"It was wrong of me." So you know you're 
kind of reflecting now you've seen that  

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maybe you made a mistake and you are owning up 
to the fact that you were wrong in this case.

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If you're in a situation where you've made a 
mistake but you should have seen it coming or  

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you should have thought in that moment to avoid it 
happening you could say "It was careless of me." 

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So if you are careless it means that 
you're not taking care in a situation,  

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so maybe you weren't really thinking in 
that moment and you made a mistake, whereas  

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if you had thought about it -if you were more 
careful- then you wouldn't be in this situation.

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So the next one is very formal. 
It's "I sincerely apologize." 

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So you probably might write this, 
rather than say it like you could say it  

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maybe if you're in the workplace and you've 
made a mistake and you really want to show  

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how sincere you are, how much you mean you are 
sorry, you would say "I sincerely apologize." 

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You might also see this written in 
letters or in emails, for example,  

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maybe if someone has made a mistake, maybe 
a company that you've been working with  

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has made a mistake and they would want 
to show you how much they are sorry  

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that they made this mistake, so they 
would use "sincerely" to do that.

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Another way to show that you have 
reflected about what has happened  

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and that you are extremely sorry 
you could say "I deeply regret." 

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So you could say "I deeply regret 
what happened and i'm ever so sorry." 

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That's again showing that you're being 
very sincere, that you really mean it.

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If you're enjoying this lesson then why not 
check out our lesson with 10 Guest Star on  

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Friends, where you can learn 10 new expressions. 

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You can click up here or down in the 
description box below to watch that lesson next.

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So now we're going to take a look at some 
more informal ways to say "I'm sorry,"  

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so you would probably use these more 
when small things have happened,  

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not very serious problems and probably 
when you are with your friends.

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Okay so the first one is a little 
bit funny if you make a mistake  

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in that moment you might say "Oops!"
So for example you might drop something  

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and when you do that you'd say "Oops" or you 
might bump into someone or you might drop  

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something you're holding for someone 
and you would say "Oops, I'm sorry." 

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And this is quite a cute one, it's very quick 
it's very easy and it does sound quite funny.

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You could even make this sound a little bit cuter 
and say "Oopsie!" so again if you're being a  

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bit clumsy you might say "Oopsie, silly me."
So you're kind of laughing at the situation,  

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looking at it in a light-hearted way and kind 
of making fun of yourself in a way as well. 

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One that I think maybe is used more in the 
United States of America and we've picked  

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up more as well in Britain is "My bad," so 
if you've made a mistake instead of saying  

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my mistake or my apologies in a very informal 
situation you could say "My bad," so it's another  

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way of owning up to a situation and admitting that 
you've made a mistake but in a very informal way.

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Another informal way of admitting to 
a mistake is to say "I messed up." 

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So instead of saying my bad you could 
say "I messed up" and you would probably  

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use this where there's been some confusion 
in a situation and you've made a mistake. 

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So it's a very informal way of saying my mistake.

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And finally you could even say "Sorry about that."

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So you can see that there's different ways of 
pronouncing this one which is quite interesting,  

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so using a True T and that means you 
pronounce all the T's we wouldn't really  

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do this because it's too much effort. 
It would sound like "Sorry about that." 

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So because you've got quite a lot of T's there, 
we wouldn't really pronounce all of them so  

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natives would use the Glottal T, that is when 
the flow of air is stopped and then released. 

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So I would say "Sorry about that," so you can 
hear there you can't actually hear the T's but  

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there is a sound there where I'm stopping 
the flow of air and then it's released. 

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"Sorry about that." 

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You might even just use one 
Glottal T, so you could say  

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"Sorry about that," this is how natives speak 
and this is a lot more natural when we speak.

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So I hope you enjoyed this lesson and you 
have lots of alternatives now to say "I'm  

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sorry," and we also did a lesson "Alternatives 
to Saying Good," which you can check out next,  

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but what would you like to see next?
Let us know down in the comments below  

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what alternative kind of lessons would you like.
And I'll see you guys in the next lesson.