We use the following
words and phrases, Excuse me, Sorry and I beg your pardon almost every day, but most times we interchange
them for each other and they still sound nice to the listener.
Well, that might be
allowed semantically, but for proper representation and for the sake of good
writing we have to align them properly in terms of the syntax structure. So,
the onus is on us to properly know how and when to use them, either in the
British or American context. Please follow us as we clearly distinguish their
usage.
We say excuse me to someone if we want to get the
person’s attention or before we do something that might disturb him/her,
interrupt him/her, push him/her in a crowd or disagree with him/her.
1 . Excuse me; can I get past,
please?
We say sorry (formally) or I beg your pardon when we need to apologise for something:
2. Sorry, I did tread on
your toe.
3. I beg your pardon. I think
you were next in queue.
But in American
English, pardon me and excuse me are used as apologies.
We say pardon? When we did not hear what
someone has said and want them to repeat it. In this case, sorry? is also used in the British
English and excuse me? or pardon me? in American English.
We hope we have been
able to shed some light on the different contexts of usage of “excuse me”, “sorry”
and “I beg your pardon”.
This is the second
building block; do keep in touch with us as we intend to lay a solid foundation
in the use of English as it relates to problematic words.
