Why do we apologise a lot?

I often apologise for things that are beyond my control, like I'll tell my OH or a friend that I'm sorry if they lose something or if something bad happens to them or if it rains What I mean is though, I'm sorry to hear that, or it's a pity.

My OH is German and her friends and family get so irritated when I apologise for something that isn't my fault, we had visitors last week from Germany and it was raining a lot one day and I said ''I'm really sorry about the weather'' and one of the guests just turned around and said ''why are you sorry? will you stop apologising now, you don't control the weather!''. I think it really annoys them :pac: Though they also get angry if I thank them more than once or if I ask them if they want to eat or drink something more than once, Irish habits die hard

I also apologise if someone bumps into me, I just can't help it, it's a habit.

Heard it in Tesco the other day. Woman leaves her card behind at the checkout, checkout girl shouts "sorry" "sorry" trying to get the customers attention!

But why didn't she shout excuse me, or hello there?

Why sorry?

py2006 wrote: »

Why don't we say "excuse me"? How did it come about? Are we all insecure and afraid to offend?

"Excuse me" means "to lessen the blame attaching to a fault or offence. Try to justify."

"Sorry" means is to express apology.

So its like your getting the "sorry" for interupting or whatever, out of the way rather than justify it, i guess.

py2006 wrote: »

Have you ever noticed that we (irish people) say the word 'sorry' alot and incorrectly??

Just noticed a guy in restaurant saying "sorry" to waitress in order to get her attention. I find my self saying it when trying to get passed somebody.

Why don't we say "excuse me"? How did it come about? Are we all insecure and afraid to offend?

It really annoys me and it's very common. I do it myself sometimes but really try to say 'Excuse me'. I sometimes garner funny looks for 'excuse me' it though, like people think it's rude or something. And people who come to this country to learn English start saying it too.

I found it was common enough in the UK too.

Why are we so sorry all the time? I have no idea.

You make a better dour than a windae.

Always works

_Whimsical_ wrote: »

Excuse me is just another way of saying sorry, it means exactly the same thing down to dictionary definition when used in this context, it is I beg your pardon, forgive me for interupting you. Sorry is just a less formal way of saying it but it means exactly what the Queen means when she might say excuse me. It's really not an exclusively Irish thing, it's an exclusively polite, well mannered people thing.

I disagree 100%, and I say that as somebody who has travelled extensively and lived outside the state for long periods. What really brings it to light is when we have visitors from other countries staying with us, and they always comment on "why do people keep saying sorry"?

I think its the sheer volume of "sorries" that fascinates visitors + the varied reasons why sorry is used here.

You see people bumping into other people and the person who gets bumped into will invariably say sorry! Then you may have somebody sqeezing through a queue in Tesco and they will say sorry as they squeeze past (I would say excuse me).

Cursing is another thing we do a lot off for no apparent reason, rather like the F Word is just a form of muttered punctuation. Stand at any bus stop and listen to the F being inserted into perfectly normal sentences, then the bus arrives and you say sorry as you sit down beside somebody.

...then you say Thank you to the driver as you get off at your stop

The Irish use sorry when excuse me is the correct usage for the circumstance.

Sorry is an abbreviation of I sorrowful. It's like je suis desole.

It's to demonstrate compassion for the other, not to alert someone you need them to move so you can get by it get the waiters attention.

Sorry is for transgressions against the other or to show you feel bad with them when they feel bad about something.

Not really sure why the Irish use it so much.

One eyed Jack wrote: »

I very much doubt that :pac:





Is it a peculiarly Irish thing though?

I'm reminded of something my elderly neighbour said to me when I was a child, and of course I'd done something to piss her off... again -

"Ahh sorry's just an excuse with you!"

She was right

Since then yeah, it bugs the hell out of me when someone apologises insincerely. I'll always call them out on it because there's no point in apologising for something when they're not actually sorry (that was another one of my neighbours sagelys - "You're only sorry you got caught!", she was right then too! ).

I use 'sorry?' when I should use 'excuse me?', and I make no apologies for it

Yes it's definitely an Irish thing.

When it's a sorry for a real screw up..., sorry is a good start but you need a step 2.