This article was updated by the Great British Mag content on July 11 2021
If you spend any time in the UK, you’re bound to have someone tell you they’re sorry. Brits are sorry for practically everything. They’re sorry when you bump into them in the street, when they can’t hear what you’re saying… Honestly, is there a time when it’s not appropriate to say sorry? It will probably come as no surprise to find that Brits can say “sorry” up to 200,000 times during their lifetime!
But… do Brits mean it when they say sorry?
More often than not, Brits use the expression as a way of showing good manners. It’s a throwback to the British class system which still looms large over daily life in the UK.
Many people will toss a casual “sorry” to a stranger to help diffuse a potentially awkward situation, or as a politer way of saying, “we don’t particularly care, but we felt like we needed to say something.”
We are sorry for feeling sorry all the time. Sorry! Wait, did we just say “sorry” twice in a row? Sorry about that! Oh God…
