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  • I'm sorry!

  • Justin... hi, sorry, I have to apologize to Justin Bieber, because I have already made

  • a mistake.

  • You might be asking, "What are you talking about, you just started the video?"

  • Today's video is "sorry vs. excuse me".

  • And now, I'm living in Canada and they're very - they're world-famous for saying "sorry".

  • But even Canadians can learn a lesson from this particular lesson, because there's a

  • time to use "excuse me" and a time to use "sorry".

  • Let's go to the board and explore it.

  • So, E. E's singing as well: I'm sorry!

  • And Justin Bieber is Canadian.

  • I guess in this song he couldn't say "excuse me" because he already screwed up.

  • How do we know?

  • We're going to explain on the board here.

  • And I've put them in order for a specific reason, because they happen at different times.

  • We say "excuse me", "excuse me" is a phrase, okay, because it's got more than two words.

  • It's not a word, it's a phrase, but I broke it down and said, "Well, let's look at excuse".

  • I know what "me" is, right, pronoun.

  • But why do we say "excuse me"?

  • Well, we - excuse is a verb.

  • It means to judge with forgiveness.

  • In other words, you're about to see something and when you judge or think about it, you

  • need to do it with forgiveness in your heart.

  • Which means you need to give me some space and not to judge me badly or be too - too

  • hard on me.

  • Okay?

  • Also, it means to overlook, it means to not look at something, to go by it.

  • So, if you overlook something - imagine there's a white wall and there's a little black mark

  • right there.

  • Now, you go "The wall is perfectly clean, but there's a little black mark."

  • You're not going to destroy the wall, you'll just overlook it and say "Okay, I'm just going

  • to ignore that because it's a small blemish or a small - a small mark and it doesn't destroy

  • the whole thing."

  • Or apologize.

  • So, when you say, "excuse me", you can be apologizing to someone.

  • In this case, it's a general rule, we can say excuse me is usually said before you have

  • done something wrong.

  • Okay?

  • And to give you examples where this might come in true, or be true, the first one is

  • to get someone's attention.

  • Now, in a restaurant, you'll find a lot of Canadians or - not Canadians, Americans, British

  • people, they'll go "Excuse me, excuse me", because they want to get your attention.

  • They're directing to get someone to look at them.

  • They haven't done anything wrong, but they do need your attention.

  • So "excuse me" comes up there, right?

  • Remember we talk about forgiveness, overlook, and apologize?

  • So, overlook me yelling in the restaurant, "excuse me", because I actually need your help.

  • Or in a store, I need your help.

  • I don't know your name, your name night be "Susie", but I don't know Susie, so I have

  • to go "Excuse me", okay?

  • So, forgive me for calling you like that, but we don't know each other well enough yet.

  • Interrupt somebody.

  • Now, imagine I'm working at my desk and you need my attention, right?

  • So, going back to attention.

  • But I'm actually working.

  • I'm not just standing there.

  • You might say, "Excuse me", because I'm interrupting you, right?

  • And we go up to here, when we go, I'm apologizing for interrupting you during your work, right?

  • It's very polite, because in saying that, I'm acknowledging or I know that you're working

  • and I respect that, but I need your attention.

  • And the third one we have down here is: ask somebody to move.

  • Now, I'm apologizing in a way because I am interrupting you, but I need your attention

  • because you have to move.

  • Whew.

  • All three.

  • So, if you're getting on a bus and someone's sitting there and they have their bag there

  • and you go, "Excuse me, can I have that seat?"

  • Okay, excuse me, I need your attention, I don't know your name.

  • I'm interrupting you because you're sitting down, maybe you're playing a video game, I

  • don't know.

  • And I'm asking you to move, please.

  • Alright?

  • So, excuse me, could you move over?

  • I need the chair.

  • Cool?

  • Alright.

  • So, we've got all that.

  • This is "excuse me".

  • Now, there are some exceptions to that, where I might say, "I'm sorry to interrupt" when

  • - sorry, let me come back to you on that one, because I actually want to do that over here

  • when we say "sorry".

  • This is an exception that I will come back to.

  • Let's go over to "sorry", seeing as I started there and I'm sorry I did.

  • I'll go over to "sorry" to show you how that's different.

  • "Sorry" is an adjective, so right at the bat we can see that - right off the bat, sorry,

  • we can see that an adjective is different than a phrase.

  • So, even in the formation they're different, right?

  • When we talk about "sorry", it means to feel distress, something is stressing you out.

  • It means also offer sympathy, which you don't see over here, right?

  • And it's an apology, so this is where they come together and this is where people have

  • a problem.

  • Because we know "sorry" is an apology and "excuse me" can be used to apologize for doing

  • something, but apologize is a verb and an apology is a noun, okay?

  • So, we're offering two different things when we use these words, and we want to keep that

  • in mind.

  • Now, here's the other difference, besides the structure.

  • We usually say sorry after you've done something wrong.

  • Now, keep that in mind.

  • We use "excuse me" before we've done something, so we're saying we know what we're about to

  • do isn't comfortable or isn't good, and I want to bring that attention.

  • I want to be polite and let you know.

  • But we say "sorry" after we've done it, because it's like "Uh, too late, I've already done it."

  • So, "excuse me?" doesn't quite work.

  • You have to say "I'm sorry" because I've done it.

  • We use "sorry" to show sympathy for unpleasant news.

  • Let me give you an example.

  • I'm sorry to hear that your dog died.

  • I have sympathy for the pain that you're going through.

  • I feel for you, okay?

  • Disappointment at what you wish you could have done.

  • Let me give you an example.

  • Oh sorry - what you could have done and you could have changed something.

  • So, I'll give you an example.

  • You have 100 dollars and you buy comic books.

  • 100 dollars' worth of comic books.

  • Batman comic books.

  • You know I love Batman, but I forgive you already, okay?

  • Don't worry, you don't have to say sorry to me.

  • But you buy 100 dollars' worth of Batman comic books.

  • Then you go to the train, you get to the train and the train costs 75 dollars.

  • I bet you're sorry now that you spent your money.

  • You wish you could have changed it.

  • You did the right thing!

  • Trust me, in 100 years, those Batman comic books will be worth way more money!

  • But you wish you could have done something - you're sorry that that had happened, okay?

  • So, what about this one?

  • Sorry to say you can't do something.

  • Well oftentimes, someone will say, "Hey, I'm having a party Friday, can you come?"

  • You go, "I'm sorry, I can't do it.

  • I've got to work that night.

  • Wish I could, but I just can't do it, sorry."

  • Right?

  • You can't use "excuse me" in this one.

  • You have to say "I'm sorry", right?

  • Because you are apologizing in a way.

  • You're offering up an apology for your inability to attend that function or that invitation.

  • Now, I like this one.

  • Describe a bad situation.

  • I know you're going, "How can you say 'sorry'?

  • I don't understand."

  • Well, how about this?

  • You're a sorry excuse of a man.

  • You're a bad man.

  • This is a sorry excuse for an educational facility.

  • It's a bad school.

  • So, you can put that "sorry" in a sentence and you're not apologizing.

  • You're saying what this is is disgusting or bad, mwahaha.

  • I like it, see?

  • I'm not just giving you basic English.

  • I'm giving you English to insult people in a native way.

  • Now, can you imagine walking up to someone to say, "You're a sorry excuse for man".

  • You're saying "You're not a man, you're nothing.

  • You're not even a boy, you're a worm!"

  • Sorry, E. No, I don't mean - No disrespect, okay?

  • You understand?

  • Right?

  • So, you say, "It's a sorry situation", you're saying there's no excuse for this.

  • Some people are sorry examples of leaders.

  • I'll let you do your own math.

  • Okay.

  • So, I wanted to come back over here because I said "excuse me" and "sorry" can't be used

  • for the same.

  • But sometimes, we use "sorry" to interrupt.

  • Remember I said we could talk about "excuse me" because it's before you do something,

  • and I came back and said "oop", because I kind of interrupted myself.

  • Here's the exception where you say "I'm sorry".

  • When you say "I'm sorry to interrupt you", it's because - now, let's take a step back,

  • understand the logic here.

  • As I say to you, "I'm sorry to interrupt", I've already interrupted you.

  • Remember, I said you use "sorry" after you've done something?

  • Well, just me saying "I'm sorry to interrupt you" has interrupted you.

  • I've already done it.

  • So, sometimes you hear - because I know some people will go "Well, you can say 'I'm sorry

  • to interrupt you'".

  • Yeah, that's an exception because actually you've already interrupted them.

  • "Excuse me" is like - we say that as a preamble or we're saying pre like "before I interrupt you."

  • But the fact of the matter is you already have interrupted someone.

  • So that's why sometimes you hear people say "I'm sorry to interrupt" instead of "Excuse

  • me to interrupt", because they understand just by saying the words.

  • If somebody is concentrating and writing and you go "I'm sorry to interrupt".

  • You're like "Yeah, you just did.

  • I was busy, what do you want?"

  • But I'm trying to be polite and here, I'm acknowledging that I've already done it.

  • Here, I'm saying I'm not about to, or I'm just about to interrupt, but I want to be polite.

  • I'm not an ignorant or not an annoying person.

  • Cool?

  • So, I'm about to - oh, sorry.

  • I forgot.

  • Notice how I said "I'm sorry"?

  • I forgot about the exception over here.

  • Now, there is an exception for sorry that we - you have to say instead of "excuse me",

  • you have to say "sorry".

  • After you pass gas.

  • And you're probably saying, "What is passing gas?"

  • Well, if you're thinking - I know what gas is, teacher.

  • I know it's not petrol.

  • Gasoline in North America is what I put in my car and I can drive away, but I don't know

  • why I would have to say "sorry".

  • Well, this is what happens when you - when you pass gas or you fart, that's the word

  • we actually use, when you fart or you have bad smell coming from your bum into the air

  • that other people have to smell.

  • Then you say, "Excuse me".

  • What?

  • You don't say "sorry", you say "excuse me".

  • I don't know why, because you've already put it in the air and everyone has to smell it.

  • You go, "Oh my God, excuse me.

  • Oh, it was unfortunate, I didn't mean for that to come out, oh, bad."

  • Or, here's my favorite one.

  • Another one for "excuse me" instead of "sorry" is - I have to give you two.

  • I'll give you this one right now, when you don't like what you hear, you say "excuse me."

  • And you're probably going, "Sorry?"

  • When you say "sorry" in that particular sense, it means I didn't hear what you said correctly.

  • So sometimes you'll hear people say "sorry?" and they mean "What did you say?"

  • Well, repeat.

  • If I go, "Excuse me?"

  • Both of these things are talking about hearing, but in the first case, "sorry" means "I'm

  • sorry, I didn't hear that sound you were giving me."

  • But when I go "Excuse me?"

  • I don't like what I just heard.

  • I don't like what you said.

  • So, if you said, "Hey James, you and E should retire this show."

  • And I go "Excuse me?

  • Huh, huh?

  • Excuse me?"

  • And you might go "Sorry, didn't mean to say that."

  • I go "Yeah yeah, mmhmm, that's right."

  • Anyway.

  • So, the exceptions are funny because I put them on opposite sides just to tell you that

  • in this particular case after passing gas, you say "excuse me", you don't say "sorry",

  • right?

  • Unless it's really foul or really bad, then you should say sorry, because that's just

  • rude, okay?

  • But when you say "excuse me", you don't say "sorry" for "I don't like what I heard", you

  • say "Excuse me?"

  • And from the tone of my voice you can tell that I don't like what you just said to me.

  • Alright?

  • But when I say "sorry", I actually didn't hear what you said.

  • Are we cool?

  • Great.

  • Now we've done that.

  • A quick review, just a quick one.

  • Just remember, "excuse me" comes first, and that's why I put it first.

  • Before you do something that you're going to be sorry about.

  • Sorry, there.

  • And "sorry" comes after you've done that, after you've done something wrong.

  • If you can keep those in mind, you'll know almost 90% when to use them, and don't forget

  • the exceptions I just told you about.

  • When passing gas, you say "Sorry", no, "Excuse me", you say "excuse me", remember?

  • Because I don't know why we say it afterwards, but we do.

  • And "excuse me" is used for things you don't like that you hear.

  • "Excuse me?

  • What do you mean my Prime Minister isn't a good guy?"

  • Some people don't think he's a good guy.

  • Or, "I'm sorry to interrupt", even though because the interruption has already taken

  • place, okay?

  • Even though I told you you can use "Excuse me".

  • Now we're done both of those.

  • Let's go, because we have to do our homework and maybe more than that, we have to do, I'm

  • sorry, our quiz.

  • Okay, I'm back.

  • Sorry about the wait.

  • Excuse me as we amble over to the board, which means to walk over to the board.

  • E and I were having a conversation and let's take a look at it and see how we can use the

  • two words we were working on, sorry and excuse me, to change this into something a little

  • bit different.

  • Okay?

  • So, first, E says, "Can I have your attention?"

  • And then James said "I didn't hear what you said."

  • And E says, "I don't want to disturb you, but could you move your foot?"

  • James said, "I don't think I like what you said."

  • E said, "You're stepping on my foot."

  • And James says, "Oh, I apologize for doing that."

  • Kind of formal.

  • So, let's look at what I think the first mistake we have.

  • The first thing I think we can get rid of is this.

  • Yes, the whole sentence.

  • How about the next one?

  • Yeah, I think we can get rid of the whole sentence.

  • What about this one?

  • Okay.

  • And the next one, you're going, "Oh my God James, you're erasing everything!"

  • Yeah, because once we use these words, they have so much information loaded in - sorry,

  • there.

  • Your foot.

  • Because I'm asking you a question, I almost forgot that.

  • There's so much information loaded in the two words we are using, excuse me and sorry,

  • that whole sentences can be taken - or sentence fragments can be just removed and use those

  • words alone.

  • And here, another one we can take - get rid of all of that.

  • And that.

  • Whew.

  • There's almost nothing left, and that's right.

  • Let's see what happens when we actually put in the corrections for these sentences.

  • And you're going to have a whole conversation with just a few words like a native speaker.

  • Alright, ready?

  • So, "Can I have your attention?"

  • What do we say when we said - to get someone's attention?

  • You can just say this, you can just say "Excuse me."

  • That's it.

  • "Excuse me."

  • And say it in a questioning way.

  • The voice goes up, "excuse me", it's like a question, an invitation.

  • I've gotta be careful, I don't want to keep popping the cap.

  • Alright.

  • So, excuse me for doing that.

  • Probably destroys your eardrums.

  • And then James can say this, watch.

  • He can say this, he can just say this one word, one word.

  • You can just say this: Sorry?

  • Yep, that's it.

  • You're like, "What?"

  • Yeah, that's all I need to say.

  • We're having a real conversation now.

  • Next thing, yeah.

  • Remember, the offense has already happened in this case, so we're not going to say "Excuse

  • me, could you move your foot?", but "Sorry, could you move your foot?"

  • Now, James says - I'm not usually this rude, okay?

  • Before you guys think it's me.

  • It's just me writing a story.

  • Because you know I love E and I would never step on his foot.

  • First of all, he doesn't have a foot.

  • He's a worm, so that would be a physical impossibility.

  • Okay.

  • But I could say this.

  • And then finally, at the end of this story, at the end.

  • Let me just clean up the board a little bit.

  • Ah, hold on a second, jeez.

  • Excuse me for spelling this incorrectly.

  • There we go.

  • And I need to - alright.

  • So, look how we've changed this entire story.

  • We started off with all of this and it can be made down to just this.

  • "Excuse me?"

  • "Sorry?"

  • "Sorry, but could you move your foot?"

  • "Excuse me?"

  • "You're stepping on my foot."

  • "Oh, I'm sorry."

  • It's like, but all these words!

  • Well, it's right there.

  • It's in the tone.

  • It's what it's loaded with.

  • With this "excuse me", it's like "Can I have your attention?"

  • "Excuse me?"

  • And the other person saying "Sorry?"

  • I didn't hear what you just said to me.

  • And then, "Sorry, but could you move your foot?"

  • Like, I'm sorry to disturb you as you step on me.

  • And the other guy's like, "Excuse me?

  • Like what?"

  • Like, "You're stepping on my foot."

  • Then, "Oh, I'm sorry" I apologize for that.

  • Anyway, I apologize for - Oh, having to give you the bonus and almost ending this video

  • too early.

  • But, let's look over here.

  • I'm going to give you some other words for "excuse me" and "sorry" that are typically

  • used in English, although you'll find that "excuse me" and "sorry" are used more.

  • Apologize.

  • Apologize is a verb and it's to say you're sorry for doing something.

  • I would say that's a little bit more formal that "sorry".

  • We throw around "sorry".

  • When you say "apologize", you're taking the time to maybe give a little bit more, more

  • emphasis to how sorry you feel.

  • Like, I'm sorry, I'm sorry - I'm sorry I stepped on your foot, but I apologize means I'm very

  • sorry about what I've done.

  • Okay?

  • Pardon is to forgive an offense.

  • You'll notice I have that as a noun and a verb because a government can pardon a criminal.

  • So, if a criminal has done something wrong, they can forgive that offense.

  • We can also use pardon, funny enough, to say when I don't hear something.

  • If someone says something and I go "Excuse me, pardon?"

  • It means "What did you say?"

  • Similar to "sorry", like I didn't hear what you said, pardon?

  • Can you repeat that?

  • I beg your pardon, which no one really says these days, but if you did say to someone,

  • "I beg your pardon?", it's like could you repeat that?

  • I don't believe you said that!

  • Okay, regret.

  • Regret's an interesting one, because it's going to seem similar to apologize and sorry.

  • You feel sad about something, but there's also another thing that usually goes with

  • the verb type, when we use it as a verb.

  • It's about a lost opportunity.

  • Now, I need you to think about that.

  • Because to say you're sorry, you wish that bad thing didn't happen.

  • But when you regret it, it's like that bad thing happened, but also you notice that there

  • was something lost, a lost opportunity.

  • Like, I regret not helping my son in the Army.

  • No, that's not a good sentence.

  • Let me put it this way: I regret not asking that girl out for a date, because she's a

  • brilliant woman and she would have made an amazing wife.

  • So, not only means sorry, I'm sad about it, but it was a lost opportunity to have a great wife.

  • Or, I regret not writing that book five years ago, because now someone else has written

  • it and no one wants to read my book.

  • I'm sorry, not just sorry, I feel sad about it, but I lost a good opportunity.

  • So, you want to use regret.

  • It's a nice word that adds a little bit more "oomph", right?

  • It gives more information to people.

  • Condolences.

  • Condolences.

  • Condolences is an interesting word, because it's not used often, but it has a very strong

  • meaning in our society, because it means deep sympathy or deeply sorry for.

  • And it's usually used for death, okay?

  • So, you're not going to say "My condolences on you not doing well on a test."

  • Not good enough.

  • My condolences for stepping on your foot.

  • No, it doesn't meet the level.

  • Somebody died or has a serious disease?

  • My condolences on the death of - I don't like using it this way, but on the death of a parent

  • or a child.

  • This "sorry" comes from the bottom of my heart, okay?

  • So, it's not used often, but it is used - nobody makes a mistake using it, so I don't want

  • you to use it, okay?

  • My condolences on your steak not being cooked well?

  • No.

  • Doesn't fly.

  • You clearly don't speak English.

  • But for death or something serious, absolutely.

  • Alright?

  • So now, you've got a formal word like a formal jacket you can put on when necessary.

  • Okay?

  • Cool.

  • Now, what do I want you to do for homework?

  • I want you to write a letter to somebody that you have wronged.

  • When you have wronged them, it means you have done something to hurt them.

  • Yeah, you don't have to show anyone this one.

  • You can make an imaginary letter, okay?

  • You can make an imaginary few sentences.

  • But I want you to do that and I want you to use at least three of the words here.

  • Example, you could say - I'm not a criminal, but "I regret killing those five people and

  • eating them", right?

  • "My condolences to the families of - who had to suffer through what I have done.

  • But I hope that the government will pardon me because of the apology I have met."

  • Look, I just used all those.

  • Boom, there.

  • I speak English.

  • And when you speak English, you can do the same thing, right?

  • I use it as a pardon, as what the government gives, I used regret, sorry for what I did.

  • My condolences, because people lost their lives, and I apologized instead of saying

  • "sorry", right?

  • Anyway.

  • You'll have to excuse me because we have to draw this lesson to an end.

  • But what I want to leave you with is the website, www.engvid.com . Go there please.

  • Do the test, see how well you've actually mastered this lesson.

  • Don't forget to subscribe.

  • There is a bell around here, ring my bell, and you'll get my latest video whenever it

  • comes out, it comes straight to you.

  • And as always, thank you, thank you very much for supporting www.engvid.com and myself.

  • And this goes out to Mr. TN.

  • You know who you are because of my "just/only" video.

  • You came down and said, "James, could you do me a video on sorry and excuse me?

  • I get confused" and I hope I cleared up your confusion.

  • And for any of you out there, if you want me to do a video, pop something down.

  • Watch the video, leave a message, and I do read them and I'll get back to you, alright?

  • Anyway, sorry, I've got to go, but have a good one.

  • See you soon.

I'm sorry!

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