Ways to apologize in Chinese

We all make mistakes, more often than not, we run into situations where we have to apologize to another person for our wrongdoing.


So, how do we apologize in Chinese?


The most straightforward version is Traditional 對不起, Simplified 对不起 which literally means "sorry"
In Pinyin(duì bù qǐ)


For example, Traditional:


 A: 你壓到我了, 好痛! (nǐ yā dào wǒ le, hǎo tòng!)
 B: 阿, 對不起, 有沒有怎麼樣? (a, duì bù qǐ, yǒu méi yǒu zěn me yàng?)
 A: 當然有! 流血了! (dāng rán yǒu, líu xiě le!)
 B: 趕快擦藥! (gǎn kuài cā yào!)


Simplified


A: 你压到我了, 好痛！(nǐ yā dào wǒ le, hǎo tòng!)
B: 阿, 对不起, 有没有怎么样? (a, duì bù qǐ, yǒu méi yǒu zěn me yàng?)
A: 当然有!流血了! (dāng rán yǒu, líu xiě le!)
B: 赶快擦药！(gǎn kuài cā yào!)


In English


A: You're crushing me, it hurts!
B: Oh I'm sorry, are you ok?
A: Of course I'm NOT ok!!! I'm bleeding!
B: Hurry, put on some ointment!


ALSO, more often than not, we'll come across the situation where you'll be asking someone to give you the way through or when someone is obstructing you to do something, then we use the expression 不好意思 (bù hǎo yì si)


It literally means "excuse me" in English.


An example could be as follows:


At a baseball match-->


A: (A man is standing in the walkway)
B: (A woman walks and is behind the man) 不好意思, 我要過去, 可不可以借過一下?
(bù hǎo yì si, wǒ yào guò qù, kě bù kě yǐ jiè guò yí xià?)
A: 不好意思, 我在這邊等人, 若我移開的話, 對方就看不到我了.
(bù hǎo yì si, wǒ zài zhè biān děng rén, ruò wǒ yí kāi de huà, duì fāng jìu kàn bú dào wǒ le)
B: 不好意思, 但是我真的需要過去, 我家人正在等著我.
(bù hǎo yì si, dàn shì wǒ zhēn de xū yào guò qù, wǒ jiā rén zhèng zài děng zhe wǒ)
A: 好吧, 那你請過.
(hǎo ba, nà nǐ qǐng guò)
B: 謝謝.
(xiè xie)
A: 不客氣
(bú kè qì)


In English:




A: (A man is standing in the walkway)
B: (A woman walks and is behind the man)Excuse me, I need to go through, can you please give me the way?
A: I'm sorry but, I'm waiting for someone, if I shift my position, they'll won't be able to see me.
B: I'm sorry but I really need to get through, my family is waiting for me.
A:OK well, go through then.
B: Thank you.
A: It's a pleasure.


So, 對不起 and 不好意思 are two primary methods of apologizing in Chinese, they are pretty much the equivalent of "sorry" and "excuse me" in English.