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What British people mean when they say 'sorry'

bbc.com

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Re: What British people mean when they say 'sorry'

#71

Post by chris_j »

dfawcus wrote: post #66

The flaw with that article, it being the Beeb showing their bias, is that it mainly applies to the English Home Counties. So it is a southern English habit, not a British one. The other parts of England are more direct, and will use more obvious phrasing. Similarly the other parts of Britain will be more direct.

Indeed. I've lived in the UK my entire life, and I've only ever heard "sorry" used to mean "excuse me, can I get past please?" in and around London. It still sounds weird to me. Where I come from (further from London), you'd just say "excuse me".

Re: What British people mean when they say 'sorry'

#73

Post by benj111 »

chris_j wrote: post #71
dfawcus wrote: post #66

The flaw with that article, it being the Beeb showing their bias, is that it mainly applies to the English Home Counties. So it is a southern English habit, not a British one. The other parts of England are more direct, and will use more obvious phrasing. Similarly the other parts of Britain will be more direct.

Indeed. I've lived in the UK my entire life, and I've only ever heard "sorry" used to mean "excuse me, can I get past please?" in and around London. It still sounds weird to me. Where I come from (further from London), you'd just say "excuse me".

Not quite. If you had to get off a packed bus with a large rucksack I'd certainly be saying sorry and I'm from Yorkshire.

Re: What British people mean when they say 'sorry'

#74

Post by benj111 »

stavros wrote: post #2

This is 100% accurate. I've seen someone apologizing for being stepped on (accidentally, of course). It really does mean "we have, unfortunately and inadvertently, crossed paths and must now ward off the evil spirits by acknowledging this".

I think it's just acknowledging that the thing has happened, and you aren't pissed because you know it wasn't intended so they don't need to feel bad.

Of course this being Britain, the tone used could make this mean the opposite.

Re: What British people mean when they say 'sorry'

#75

Post by throw696688 »

“Thank you” seems to be similarly versatile in London. You can’t go 30 minutes without hearing it. Once when I was in a bookshop and approached the counter with a couple books to buy, the shopkeeper opened with “thank you”. To this day I don’t understand what that was about.

Re: What British people mean when they say 'sorry'

#78

Post by enochthered »

dieselgate wrote: post #23
enochthered wrote: post #9

I’m a Brit. It was only after living overseas that I realised just how mad our use of “sorry” can be. An example. One day I was on the tube. My bag was on the seat next to me. A bloke gets on, points at my bag and says “sorry”. What he actually meant, was “move your bag”. The thing is, if he had said something so direct, I would have said “sorry, what did you say to me?” And on and on…

I grew up in the states with a close friend whose parents are both from the UK and she's the only person I've known to say "I beg your pardon" with regularity. Is that a British/UK English thing too? I never hear/read it used otherwise but it seems more succinct and "proper" to me. Mentioning it because I'm actually slightly surprised to see the "sorry, what did you say" usage here and in the article because it seems…

“I beg your pardon” can be translated as “what the fuck did you just say to me?”

It’s getting quite serious if you have to whip that one out

Re: What British people mean when they say 'sorry'

#80

Post by mxmilkiib »

mettamage wrote: post #33

As a Dutchie the way I used sorry is along the lines of “I am sorry, I won’t do that again.” Then I had a long relationship with an ethnically Dutch person but culturally a Londoner (she grew up there) and also learned there is “I am sorry for your pain and wish I could take it away” (this implies though they probably would do it again because they are not sorry for their actions). It was maddening at first but now I…

"I am sorrowful that.."

Scottish n ASD here, I've come to use the above (or just "I'm sad that..", maybe "conflicted" sometimes)

to those who use "sorry" to me, the ambiguity of the overloaded meaning leads me usually to say "no need to apologise, though I do appreciate the sentiment!"

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