Learn how to apologize
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| Привет Всем. С Вами Светлана. Hi everybody! I’m Svetlana. |
| Welcome to RussianPod101.com’s Русский язык за три минуты. The fastest, easiest, and most fun way to learn Russian. |
| In the last lesson, we learned the phrase Извините, вы говорите по-английски? "Excuse me, do you speak English?" We mentioned the word Извините, which means "excuse me" in Russian. |
| In this lesson we’re going to learn how to use “Извините” and other words when apologizing in Russian. |
| We usually use “Извините” when we want to draw somebody’s attention. Perhaps we want to order something in a restaurant or simply ask the time. |
| For example: Извините, который час? Excuse me, what time is it? |
| The other meaning of Izvinite is to say “I’m sorry” for something you’ve done or haven't done. |
| The word “Извините” derives from the word “вина”, which means guilt in English. You use it when you feel guilty for bothering somebody or causing some problem. |
| The word “Извините” is used in its formal polite form. The informal version for it is “Извини”. It also can be used in two ways as mentioned above, but it's mostly used in the sense of regret and apology. |
| It refers to the informal pronoun “you” in its singular form. In other words, you would use it when speaking to a person you would address with the pronoun “ты”. |
| Another informal word for an apology is “Прости”, which has almost the same meaning as “Извини” but with a slightly higher level of regret. It derives from the verb “прощать” which means “forgive”. So literally this word is translated as “forgive me”. |
| So the formal way to say “forgive me” in Russian would be “Простите” or “Прошу прощения”. The meaning of both phrases is almost the same. |
| “Простите” is an imperative verb which literally means “forgive me.” “Прошу прощения” means “I am asking you to forgive me.” This phrase is a bit more polite than “Простите”. As you might have guessed, the word “Прошу” means “I ask.” |
| You can add the word “пожалуйста”, “please”, to your apology to make it even more polite and sincere: |
| Простите пожалуйста |
| Извините пожалуйста. |
| “Excuse me please.” |
| Ok Great! Now it’s time for Svetlana’s tips |
| If you accidentally bump somebody, any of the phrases mentioned in this lesson would be fine for an apology. Just don’t say *nothing* or ignore the other person, because you might get a very angry reaction and be yelled at in front of everybody. Russians can be very short-tempered and emotional, but will not usually harbor resentment if you admit your mistake. It is always easier to say a simple word of apology straight away rather than try to cool an angry Russian down :-) |
| OK, that’s it for this lesson! |
| Can you count in Russian? In the next lesson we’ll learn the numbers from one to ten! |
| I'll be waiting for you in our next Русский язык за три минуты lesson. |
| Пока Пока! |
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