How to APOLOGISE and SAY SORRY at work - Business English lesson + DISCOUNT coaching call! | Breakout Business English - Improve your vocabulary and confidence using English at work.

Welcome to the Breakout Business English podcast where I help you to communicate better at work in English.

Hi everyone my name is Chris and I'm a Business English coach and tutor.

Thank you so much for listening and today's topic is how to apologize at work and say that you are sorry in a professional way.

Sometimes things go wrong we all make mistakes at some point and we all need to apologize from time In today's podcast we're going to be listening to some natural and native sounding examples of how to apologize at work.

We'll also be hearing some great ways to accept someone's apology.

We'll look at some vocabulary that we can use to sound more formal and natural in our apologies and we'll look at some informal and casual vocabulary that's still appropriate for use at work in these kind of professional contexts.

So let's get started.

First let's get started with apologizing.

We're going to follow a simple system today that we can call the 4 A's of an apology.

So in order, the first A is to admit to the mistake or agree with the facts of the situation.

Starting by making sure that you're talking about the same thing as the other person is definitely important.

Miscommunication happens frequently at work and we definitely want to avoid it when we're giving apologies.

The second A is for acknowledge.

Here we need to show the other person that we understand the impact that our actions have had.

The third A stands for apologize.

This is the point in your statement, in what you say where you can use words like sorry and apologize.

Although it's a key part of any apology however it can be quite weak on its own.

Our final a stands for act.

This is where we need to talk about what we're going to do to correct the situation the actions that we're going to take and how we're going to act moving forwards and we make sure that the consequences are as few or as small as possible we mitigate the consequences and I should say that the four A's here can really be treated like building blocks like a Lego blocks yes you definitely need the third A to apologize and I would probably suggest that the closer you get to the full four As the more serious the situation is.

If it's a particularly bad, particularly serious apology then go with all four As, but if it's a simple shorter apology, maybe you only use two or even one of these component parts.

So, with that said let's take a listen to some natural and native sounding apologies.

I'm aware that my KPIs have been below target for the past month and I understand that as my manager, this puts you in a difficult position.

I want to offer you my sincere apologies for this and i'd like to work with you to manage my performance going forward. I'm aware that my KPIs have been below target for the past month and I understand that as my manager this puts you in a difficult position.

I want to offer you my sincere apologies for this and I'd like to work with you to manage my performance going forward. I agree, absolutely.

This should not have become an issue for the customer and I should not have let this happen.

I recognise that this doesn't paint the company in the best light and I sincerely apologize for putting us in this position.

Would it be possible for me to reach out to the customer and try to remedy this?

I agree this should not have become an issue for the customer and I should not have let this happen.

I recognise that this doesn't paint the company in the best light and I sincerely apologise for putting us in this position.

Would it be possible for me to reach out to the customer and try to remedy this?

I admit that this wasn't the best way to handle the issue, and in hindsight, I probably should have dealt with this differently.

I'm really sorry for how things turned out, and I'd like to try and make this right.

I admit that this wasn't the best way to handle the issue and in hindsight I probably should have dealt with this differently.

I'm really sorry for how things turned out and I'd like to try and make this right.

so we've definitely got some more complicated apologies there with these four -part apologies but I think if you find yourself in a particularly bad situation at work hopefully I can provide you with some good ideas for how to fix things including both structure and vocabulary and as I was reading those I realize how sad and maybe slightly upsetting or depressing all of these situations sound this is a very a very low low mood bad atmosphere in this podcast episode I usually try and keep episodes a bit lighter but yeah I guess this is a dark one today.

Okay so let's start here with the two forms of the word to apologize.

In the second example we heard I sincerely apologize I sincerely apologize which is the verb form.

However in the first example we heard I want to offer you my sincere apologies my sincere apologies.

Both have the same meaning.

However, if you want to be more formal then we generally use the noun form and offer someone our apologies.

Can I offer you my apologies please.

Or indeed we can offer someone the singular an apology.

I'd like to you an apology.

Both the singular and the plural are really common ways to use this word. Of course the adjective sorry, as in the third example, I'm really sorry for how things turned out, I'm really sorry for how things turned out, I'm sorry for this, is still a useful and common way to express this.

However it is considered slightly less formal.

You might also notice that in two of those three apologies I used the word sincere or sincerely there.

Something that is sincere is something that you really honestly believe.

It comes from your heart.

You're not pretending.

You're not faking it or doing it to just try to get past a situation.

It's something that you really do think and you really do believe.

So if you are trying to emphasize your honesty and how strongly you believe in what you're saying then you can say you are sorry?

that you sincerely apologize or you can offer someone a sincere apology.

While we're here I should say that you will often hear the noun apologies the plural noun in more formal and structured meetings often as one of the items on an agenda.

I actually think this might have been a vocabulary point in the very first podcast that I made which must be two or three years ago now.

So what do we mean if someone sends their apologies?

What does it mean to send your apologies?

To send your apologies means that you were supposed to be in a People were expecting you to be there but you were unable to attend.

So if you need to tell everyone in a meeting that a colleague is very sorry that they can't attend but they had something else they needed to do, then you can say that this person sends their apologies.

For instance our General Manager sends their apologies.

We also heard the phrase to paint something in the best light.

This was in the second example I recognize that this doesn't paint the company in the best light.

I recognize that this doesn't paint the company in the best light.

If we paint, show, or portray someone or something in the best light then we try to make people think about it in the best way possible we try to give people a positive opinion of it.

If you ask me for my review of a new product for instance I could tell you lots of good things about it and show it in a positive light or I could tell you all of the bad things about it and paint it in a negative light.

So in this example we're saying that the actions of the person apologizing didn't give people the best impression of the company or the brand.

This is an idiom so as always this is an informal way to speak.

Let's talk about the word hindsight.

In our third example we heard In hindsight I should probably have dealt with this differently.

In hindsight I should probably have dealt with this differently.

Let's start by breaking this word down into two halves to try to understand it and let's start with HIND.

You probably use this as part of another word and and that is behind behind so if something is the opposite of in front of you then we can say that it is behind you you have your back to it it's behind you another place that we see this is when talking about an animal's legs if an animal like a horse or a dog has four legs then we often call the two legs at the back, the hind legs, the hind legs.

So we can see that we often use hind to talk about things that are at the back or behind us.

Sight, of course, refers to our ability see things.

So hindsight literally means our ability to see things that are behind us, more specifically behind us in terms of time.

We can hear this in contexts like talking about a miscommunication with a client for instance.

We might say with hindsight I should have ensured that the client fully understood the agreement.

With hindsight I should have ensured that the client fully understood the agreement.

Or maybe regretting your life choices made as a young adult.

In hindsight I should have studied harder at university.

I always wonder about that, I did okay at university.

I didn't do really well.

I did perfectly fine.

And I think if I'd studied harder, I might've ended up on a different career track and I might've been more successful or differently successful, but I might not have been as happy.

So I always wonder whether I should have actually studied harder at university or not.

So if you're wondering, there is an opposite to the word hindsight.

Let's do a little quiz.

Can you answer this question?

What do we call the part of your face between your eyes and where your hair starts at the top and the front of your head?

Usually where your fringe is.

I'll give you that question one more time.

what do we call the large empty space on your head just above your eyes this space is called your forehead your forehead for as in the word forward forward so we can use foresight foresight to talk about predicting what will happen or what will be needed in the future.

For instance my boss knew that the client would ask about these statistics so she had the foresight to research them before the meeting.

My boss knew that the client would ask about these statistics so she had the foresight to research them before the meeting or maybe criticizing someone's decisions.

With a little foresight we could have avoided most of these problems. With a little foresight we could have avoided most of these problems and if your English and your communication skills are not painting you in the best light then maybe we can work together.

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Let's talk now about the other side of the conversation and that is accepting an apology.

It can take a lot of courage and strength to admit that you're wrong and apologise at work, so if someone is apologising to you then it's great to know exactly what to say next.

Let's take a listen now to some natural and native ways to respond and accept a colleague's apology.

I accept your apology.

Thanks for clearing the air.

I accept your apology.

Thanks for clearing the air.

I think we can just consider this water under the bridge and move on.

I'm happy to accept your apology.

I know how much effort it can take to apologize, and I'm glad we can put this behind us.

I'm happy to accept your apology, I know how much effort it can take to apologize and I'm glad we can put this behind us.

There were a couple of idioms in these examples.

Lets start there. In the first example we heard thanks for clearing the air.

Thanks for clearing the air.

Maybe you've heard someone say that there's something in the air.

If we say that something is in the air then we mean that it's about to happen.

For instance, if an election is happening then we might say that change is in the or we often say that love is in the air if we think that two people might just start a relationship.

However, if we say that we need to clear the air, then we're suggesting that there is an atmosphere of tension.

People are worried about something.

We're saying that things feel a little awkward and people know that someone or maybe the whole group is upset.

So to clear the air means to deal with this situation and make everything right again.

An apology could clear the air of a disagreement for instance or maybe people are worried that big changes are going to happen at a company.

A manager could call a meeting and explain exactly what is happening in order to clear the air.

In the second example we heard the phrase water under the bridge, water under the bridge, as in we can just consider this water under the bridge.

We use the idiom water under the bridge to show that events in the past cannot be changed, and therefore there's no real sense in talking about them or worrying about them.

If you're standing on a bridge watching water come towards you, or maybe something on the water coming towards you, then there's something that you can do.

You can stop it, or pick it up, influence it, or change it.

However, once it has passed you, and passed under the bridge, there's nothing that can be done about it.

So, the next time you want to tell someone not to worry about something negative that they did in the past, or that happened in the past, you can refer to it as water under the bridge.

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[Mastering Professional Apologies in the Workplace]-[How to APOLOGISE and SAY SORRY at work - Business English lesson + DISCOUNT coaching call!]

📋 Summary

Mastering Professional Apologies in the Workplace

The "4 A's" Framework for Apologizing

Key Vocabulary for Professional Apologies

Accepting an Apology

🎯Key Sentences

📝Key Phrases

📖 Transcript

[Mastering Professional Apologies in the Workplace]-[How to APOLOGISE and SAY SORRY at work - Business English lesson + DISCOUNT coaching call!]

📋 Summary

Mastering Professional Apologies in the Workplace

The "4 A's" Framework for Apologizing

Key Vocabulary for Professional Apologies

Accepting an Apology

Deep Learning with ListenLeap

🎯Key Sentences

📝Key Phrases

📖 Transcript

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