Sorry About This... But This Is Why Britons Always Apologise

Brits’ fondness for apologising even when not in the wrong is not only well documented – but backed up by scientific proof.

Indeed, a recent study of more than 1,000 Britons found that one in eight people say ‘sorry’ up to 20 times a day.

And, according to a YouGov poll from last year, when compared with our American cousins, we are more likely to say sorry for things such as being late or even sneezing.

But why is that?

The reason – we’re sorry to say – may be down to semantics, according to a leading linguists expert.

Edwin Battistella, from Southern Oregon University and author of Sorry About That: The Language of Public Apology, has told the BBC that as the meaning of the word changes across cultures, it’s difficult to actually measure the ‘sorries’.

“We use the word ‘sorry’ in different ways. We can use it to express empathy – so I might say ‘sorry about the rain’,” she said.

“It might be that British and Canadian speakers use that kind of ‘sorry’ more often, but they wouldn’t be apologising, per se.

“Other researchers have talked about the use of ‘sorry’ to communicate across social classes, where you’re sort of apologising for your privilege.”

The BBC also spoke to social anthropologist Kate Fox, author of Watching the English, who said: “our excessive, often inappropriate and sometimes downright misleading use of this word devalues it, and it makes things very confusing and difficult for foreigners unaccustomed to our ways.”

But before you apologise, she did add that: “I don’t think saying sorry all the time is such a bad thing.

“It even makes sense in the context of a negative-politeness culture… Of all the words that a nation could choose to scatter about with such random profligacy, surely ’sorry’ is not the worst.”

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