Ways to say 'sorry' Part 1 - English In A Minute

Hi, I'm Sam from BBC Learning English. People

in the UK have a reputation for saying 'sorry'

a lot, so let's have a look at different ways

you can use to do this.

So: - You can say 'sorry'

- you can 'be sorry'

- and you can 'apologise'.

In each case, you use the preposition 'to' with

a person and 'for' to give the reason you're apologising:

'I said sorry to my friend for forgetting her birthday.'

After 'for' you can use a gerund or a noun.

But if you want a simple statement to say

'I was wrong', you can use any of these.

Careful who you say these to – 'my bad!'

is very informal and you would probably only

use it after making a small mistake.

'It won't happen again' is probably better in more

serious situations.