How do you say sorry?

6 Minute English

BBC

Language Learning, Education

4.6 • 1.3K Ratings

🗓️ 3 July 2025

⏱️ 7 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

When was the last time you had to apologise to somebody? Do you remember how you did it? Neil and Beth discuss apologies from around the world.

Find a full transcript, worksheet and interactive quiz for this episode at: https://www.bbc.co.uk/learningenglish/english/features/6-minute-english_2025/ep-250703

SUBSCRIBE TO OUR NEWSLETTER: ✔️ https://www.bbc.co.uk/learningenglish/newsletters

TRY LEARNING ENGLISH FROM THE NEWS:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/learningenglish/english/features/learning-english-from-the-news_2025

FIND BBC LEARNING ENGLISH HERE:

Visit our website ✔️ https://www.bbc.co.uk/learningenglish

LIKE PODCASTS?

Try some of our other popular podcasts including: ✔️ Learning English Stories ✔️ Learning English from the News ✔️ Learning English for Work

They're all available by searching in your podcast app.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Thanks for listening to Six Minute English.
0:02.7	Did you know we have a BBC Learning English email newsletter?
0:07.5	Subscribe for our latest lessons, worksheets and quizzes and weekly tips to help you study.
0:13.4	Just search BBC Learning English newsletter or follow the link in the notes for this program.
0:20.1	Six Minute English from BBC learningenglish.com.
0:27.7	Hello, this is Six Minute English from BBC Learning English.
0:31.6	I'm Neil.
0:32.2	And I'm Beth.
0:33.4	In English, there are many ways to apologise, depending on the situation.
0:38.2	In formal situations, you could say, please forgive me.
0:41.7	While to a friend, you might just say, my bad.
0:44.8	And of course, there's the most common phrase of all, I'm sorry.
0:48.8	Can you remember a time when you had to apologise, Beth?
0:52.8	Oh, I had to apologise this morning
0:55.1	because I stepped on someone's toes on the tube.
0:58.3	Okay.
0:59.1	Well, apologising depends on what you've done.
1:02.1	So sorry is fine if you accidentally step on someone's toes
1:05.4	like you did this morning, Beth.
1:07.2	But what if you do something really serious?
1:10.3	Like the Ghanaian journalist Afia Pokua,
1:13.0	who publicly criticised the king of the Ashanti tribe?
	...

Transcript will be available on the free plan in 27 days. Upgrade to see the full transcript now.

Previous episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from BBC, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of BBC and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.