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?