Question

更新於 2023年4月21日

2022年11月29日

英語 (美國)

中文 (簡體)

有關 中文 (簡體) 的問題

对不起和抱歉的差別在哪裡？如果不好說明，請提供一些例句。

I remember early on in my Chinese language education, I was taught that “对不起” meant “sorry.” Nowadays, I feel like I only hear “抱歉” in my Chinese classes, but I was never taught the difference between the two. Is there a difference, or are these phrases totally interchangeable?

Thank you in advance for any help!

答覆

Kikisama

2022年11月29日

最佳解答

中文 (簡體)

@GaoShanArt You can use 对不起 on any one you’ve done something awful with (That means you can’t use it on someone you feel pity for, and this also true for 抱歉, if you want to show some compassion you’ll say 我感到很遗憾 instead of 我感到很抱歉), while 抱歉 do not require you to point out who you are trying to apologize to.

Maybe some examples?
对不起. ✔️
我对不起你. ✔️
我很对不起他们. ✔️
他对不起我. ✔️
我对不起. ❌
我很对不起. ❌
我感到很对不起. ❌

抱歉. ✔️
我很抱歉. ✔️
我感到很抱歉. ✔️
我抱歉你. ❌
他抱歉我. ❌

And 对不起 shows more regret than 抱歉.

对不起 feels like:
I‘m so sorry, please forgive me.

抱歉 feels like:
Opps, my bad.
(It shows more politeness than regret. )

Oh there‘s another word for sorry: 不好意思, and it feels like:
Excuse me.
Oh, forgive me.
Pardon me.
(It shows no regret, it’s only a word for being manner. )

And thank you for your advise, it helps a lot. If you got more I would like to hear.

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Kikisama

2022年11月29日

中文 (簡體)

@GaoShanArt When you use the word 对不起, you gotta use it on a particular person. But 抱歉? You don‘t need to find a particular person for the word 抱歉. Because 抱歉 it’s more like a feeling, means I feel sorry but only in a way that I feel regretful for what I have done.

Hope you can understand my sentences, for I am too an English beginner myself, so I also will be grateful if you can make my sentences looks more natural.

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meihouse

2022年11月29日

中文 (簡體)

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GaoShanArt

2022年11月29日

英語 (美國)

@Kikisama

Thank you for your answer! I want to make sure I’m understanding correctly though. So “对不起” might be used to apologize to a friend or a family member, while “抱歉” can be used when apologizing to anyone, including strangers? Is that how it works?

Regarding the naturalness of your English, I think you did a pretty good job. I might make a few changes to the second part of your answer though. I would say
“Hope you can understand my sentences. I am an English language beginner, so I would be grateful if you could make my sentences sound more natural.”

I hope that helps you out a little! Let me know if you have any questions about that.

Kikisama

2022年11月29日

中文 (簡體)

@GaoShanArt You can use 对不起 on any one you’ve done something awful with (That means you can’t use it on someone you feel pity for, and this also true for 抱歉, if you want to show some compassion you’ll say 我感到很遗憾 instead of 我感到很抱歉), while 抱歉 do not require you to point out who you are trying to apologize to.

Maybe some examples?
对不起. ✔️
我对不起你. ✔️
我很对不起他们. ✔️
他对不起我. ✔️
我对不起. ❌
我很对不起. ❌
我感到很对不起. ❌

抱歉. ✔️
我很抱歉. ✔️
我感到很抱歉. ✔️
我抱歉你. ❌
他抱歉我. ❌

And 对不起 shows more regret than 抱歉.

对不起 feels like:
I‘m so sorry, please forgive me.

抱歉 feels like:
Opps, my bad.
(It shows more politeness than regret. )

Oh there‘s another word for sorry: 不好意思, and it feels like:
Excuse me.
Oh, forgive me.
Pardon me.
(It shows no regret, it’s only a word for being manner. )

And thank you for your advise, it helps a lot. If you got more I would like to hear.

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ChinglishTeadent

2022年11月29日

中文 (簡體)
中文 (繁體，臺灣) 接近流利

I agree with @Kikisama in that 对不起 can be used as a transitive verb (in addition to the sense of "I'm sorry") while 抱歉 can not.

When used to stand for "I'm sorry":
对不起 can be heard on all occasions, from the least serious offense (such as simply asking for the attention of a stranger, equivalent to "Excuse me?") to the most serious (such as apologizing to the vitcims or to the public for committing a huge crime).
抱歉 is seldom used in very serious contexts, but it's literally closer than 对不起 to "I'm sorry", showing a feeling of regret. Thus it can be upgraded by adverbs, e.g. 我很抱歉，我十分抱歉，我万分抱歉，我太抱歉了...

Note that the usage of the two expressions may vary among people of different backgrounds (especially different hometowns). I come from the northeast. Before I left my hometown at the age of 18, I almost never used 抱歉 in daily life, because it sounded very formal/literary to me, but when I went to the south, I found that 抱歉 is quite popular there, most of the time interchangeable with 对不起. I know there are also people who "assign" different functions to the two, equalizing (either) one of them to 不好意思 [excuse me] and saving the other for more serious apologies, but there isn't a strictly universal rule. In a word, you can just use them interchangeably if you like.

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GaoShanArt

2022年11月30日

英語 (美國)

@Kikisama

I see. This makes perfect sense! Thank you. And thank you for the additional examples! Those help a lot.

If you want more help with making your English sound more natural, we can follow each other!