How do you apologise professionally in English?
Match the strength to the slip — from "Sorry about that" for small things, through "I do apologise for …" as the professional standard, to "Please accept my apologies for …" for formal occasions — and make the apology complete: name exactly what happened, take responsibility ("That was my mistake") and state the next step ("To put this right, …").
- The scale: "Sorry about that" → "I'm sorry about …" → "I'm so sorry …" → "I do apologise for …" → "Please accept my apologies for …".
- Three moves: name it, own it, fix it — "I do apologise for the delay — that was my mistake, and you'll have it by nine tomorrow."
- Avoid the non-apologies: "I'm sorry if …", "I'm sorry you feel that way", "Mistakes were made" — in English they tend to read as evasive.
B1 · Customer Contact · 10 minApologising professionally in English, taught brick by brick.
A structured ten-slide lesson for B1 learners. Hear a complete professional apology in context, learn the apology scale and the three moves — name it, own it, fix it — from a tutor, then practise them across five interactive drills before a final six-question quiz. The whole arc is under ten minutes and nothing requires a signup.
- CEFR levelB1 · Intermediate
- Time to completeAbout 10 minutes
- SkillsVocabulary, Listening, Writing, Speaking
- Bricks10 blocks
01 / 06
Why 'sorry' comes in sizes at work
German gives you one word for almost everything: "Entschuldigung". You say it before interrupting someone, when squeezing past them, and after something has gone wrong. English splits those jobs. Before the disturbance you say "Excuse me" — to get attention, to interrupt, or to get past. After something has happened, "Sorry" is the normal choice. And that "sorry" comes in sizes. A typo in an internal message gets a "Sorry about that"; an invoice that reached a client two weeks late needs an "I do apologise for the delay" — plus a line about what happens now. If you use the same formula for everything at work, you will regularly miss: too light for a real mistake, or needlessly heavy for a small slip. The first step of a professional apology is therefore not a phrase but a judgement: how big was the mistake, who is affected, and am I speaking or writing? Only then do you choose the level. This lesson gives you the scale, the email formulas and the three moves that turn a stock phrase into an apology the customer actually accepts.
02 / 06
The scale: from "Sorry about that" to "Please accept my apologies"
Spoken, the scale runs from very light to very formal. At the bottom sits "Sorry about that." — for the small slip among colleagues: the wrong file shared, a bumped elbow, a name mispronounced. One step up, "I'm sorry about the delay." already names the problem. "I'm so sorry" or "I'm really sorry" add feeling but stay personal and fairly informal. The professional standard is "I do apologise for …": the stressed "do" is not a question or negative form but an emphatic auxiliary — it makes the apology explicit, much like German "Ich entschuldige mich wirklich". This is the form you hear from native speakers on the phone with customers: "I do apologise for the double booking — the room is yours from two." At the top sits "Please accept my apologies for …" (or "our apologies" when you speak for the company): the most formal level, possible in speech, at home in writing. A tip for choosing: imagine the customer reading your apology aloud to a colleague. If it sounds like "Sorry about that" after a real problem, it reads as indifferent. If it sounds like "Please accept my sincere apologies" after a trivial slip, it reads as ironic or nervous.
03 / 06
The written apology: the email
In an email everything moves one step up, because the tone of voice is missing and the text stays. The classic opener is "I'm writing to apologise for …" — it says in the first sentence what this is about. Speaking for the company you write "We apologise for …"; the most formal variant is "Please accept our sincere apologies for …". To show you take the mistake seriously, a short stand-alone sentence works: "This should not have happened." Then comes the formula you know from a hundred service emails: "We apologise for any inconvenience caused." It is correct and perfectly fine as a closer — but weak on its own, because it names nothing and promises nothing. So it belongs next to a concrete next step: "We apologise for any inconvenience caused. The correct item will be with you tomorrow, and we've arranged collection of the wrong one." A good apology email is short: a subject line with the matter ("Apology: invoice 4471"), one sentence of apology, one sentence naming the mistake precisely, the fix with a time, perhaps one sentence on prevention, and a warm close. What it does not need: three paragraphs on why the mistake was not really your fault. The longer the explanation, the more it sounds like an excuse.
04 / 06
Name it, own it, fix it — and the non-apologies
The phrase on its own is not yet an apology. What makes an apology credible in English is three moves. First, name it: say specifically what happened. "I do apologise for sending your invoice to the wrong address" is stronger than a general "I apologise for the problem", because the customer hears that you understood what went wrong. Second, own it: "That was my mistake." "This was our error." "I should have checked the address before sending it." These sentences belong where the mistake genuinely was yours or your company's. When it wasn't, you can still apologise for the inconvenience without claiming fault — as the lesson handling-complaints (B1) shows. Third, fix it: "I've already asked the recipient to delete the email." "To put this right, we'll resend the correct item today." "I'll make sure it doesn't happen again." The opposite are the so-called non-apologies, which English speakers tend to read as evasive. "I'm sorry if this caused any problems" — the "if" questions whether anything happened at all. "I'm sorry you feel that way" apologises for the other person's feelings, not for the mistake. The passive "Mistakes were made" leaves open who made them. And a long explanation of why the courier, the system or a colleague was at fault shifts responsibility instead of taking it. Such wordings are not forbidden, and you will hear them — but they read as evasive, and the apology loses credibility.
05 / 06
The German traps: Entschuldigung, es tut mir leid, apology vs apologise
Four places where German and English diverge. First, the word "Entschuldigung" itself: in German it covers both "Excuse me" (before: asking for attention, interrupting, getting past) and "Sorry" (after: something has gone wrong). If you say "Sorry" before interrupting someone in English you will be understood — but "Excuse me" is the expected form; after a mistake, "Sorry" is the normal choice. Second, "Es tut mir leid": in German it is apology and sympathy at once. In English, "I'm sorry to hear that" is pure sympathy — you say it when someone is ill or has lost a contract, not for your own mistake. In a complaint reply, keep the two apart: "I'm sorry to hear that the delivery arrived damaged — and I do apologise for the delay in replying." Third, the word class: "apologise" is the verb, "apology" and "apologies" are nouns. So "I apologise" (not "I apology"), "my apologies" (a fixed plural expression), "Please accept my apologies". The standard pattern that follows is "apologise for" plus a noun or -ing form: "apologise for the delay", "apologise for sending …". Fourth, "Sorry for the inconvenience" as a one-liner: in German, "Entschuldigen Sie die Unannehmlichkeiten" sounds correct and sufficient; in an English business letter, a bare "Sorry" reads as rather casual and the formula without a remedy as hollow. Better: "I do apologise for …" plus the concrete next step.
06 / 06
Apologising at work: register, spelling and the wider frame
A word on spelling before you wonder: this lesson writes British "apologise" and "apologies". American "apologize" is equally correct — choose one and stay with it within a text. On register: internally, among colleagues, "Sorry about that" or "My mistake — fixing it now" is entirely appropriate; chat and short messages do not call for formality. As soon as a customer, a manager or an external partner is affected, you move up to "I do apologise for …", and as soon as it becomes written and official, to "Please accept our apologies for …". Typical office occasions: the late invoice ("I do apologise for the late invoice — it went out this morning"), the double-booked meeting room ("I do apologise for the double booking — I've moved us to Room 4"), the misspelt name ("My apologies for misspelling your name in the proposal — the corrected version is attached"), joining the video call late ("Sorry I'm late — the previous call overran"). When the apology is part of a complaint reply, it is the second step in the wider sequence of acknowledge, apologise, act and follow up that the lesson handling-complaints (B1) trains. This lesson was about the step itself: the right strength, the precise wording — and the fix that has to stand behind it.