Apologizing
Feb 19 2014
Intro
Do you remember the worst mistake you ever made? Did you lie to your parents? Cheat on a test? Break something expensive? What happened?
Chances are, if you were caught doing something wrong, you had to apologize for your mistake. Maybe you felt soguilty after it happened that you decided to confess even though nobody saw you do it. The truth is, we all screw up sometimes. It’s part of being human.
Whenever you make a mistake, the best thing to do is to say that you’re sorry. It might not be fun to take responsibility for what went wrong, but at least you’llclear the air. Hopefully, the other person will accept your apology, and everything will be OK in the end.
Lily is apologizing to Jeff a lot. Learn why she’s saying sorry in this English lesson.
Chances are, if you were caught doing something wrong, you had to apologize for your mistake. Maybe you felt soguilty after it happened that you decided to confess even though nobody saw you do it. The truth is, we all screw up sometimes. It’s part of being human.
Whenever you make a mistake, the best thing to do is to say that you’re sorry. It might not be fun to take responsibility for what went wrong, but at least you’llclear the air. Hopefully, the other person will accept your apology, and everything will be OK in the end.
Lily is apologizing to Jeff a lot. Learn why she’s saying sorry in this English lesson.
Dialogue
Lily: Hey, Jeff! Oh, I’m sorry.
Jeff: What? Why? You didn’t do anything.
Lily: Well, I thought I interrupted something that you were doing. I’m really sorry. Sorry.
Jeff: You apologize a lot, don’t you?
Lily: I feel like I’m always in somebody’s way, and it’s better to clear the air and make sure that people like you and that you’re covering all your bases with anything that you could possibly have done wrong.
Jeff: Yeah, well, it’s just incessant. All the time.
Lily: I’m sorry.
Jeff: I don’t know. It makes it sound insincere.
Lily: No, it’s completely sincere.
Jeff: You’re paranoid.
Lily: No, I’m not paranoid. You never apologize. Maybe you’re just too proud.
Jeff: Well, I’ve got plenty of things to be proud about, so…
Lily: I guess you’re right. I’m sorry. So then can you forgive me for my incessant apologies?
Jeff: Three strikes and you’re out. So choose wisely. Speaking of confession, I have something to confess. I don’t really like apologizing.
Lily: Really?
Jeff: Yeah.
Lily: But don’t you find that you have a lot to apologize for, or are you just too proud?
Jeff: Not really. No, I mean only when I screw up big time.
Lily: What if you bump into somebody in the street?
Jeff: They can deal with it.
Lily: Really?
Jeff: Yeah.
Lily: But what if they hate you forever?
Jeff: I don’t care about them.
Jeff: What? Why? You didn’t do anything.
Lily: Well, I thought I interrupted something that you were doing. I’m really sorry. Sorry.
Jeff: You apologize a lot, don’t you?
Lily: I feel like I’m always in somebody’s way, and it’s better to clear the air and make sure that people like you and that you’re covering all your bases with anything that you could possibly have done wrong.
Jeff: Yeah, well, it’s just incessant. All the time.
Lily: I’m sorry.
Jeff: I don’t know. It makes it sound insincere.
Lily: No, it’s completely sincere.
Jeff: You’re paranoid.
Lily: No, I’m not paranoid. You never apologize. Maybe you’re just too proud.
Jeff: Well, I’ve got plenty of things to be proud about, so…
Lily: I guess you’re right. I’m sorry. So then can you forgive me for my incessant apologies?
Jeff: Three strikes and you’re out. So choose wisely. Speaking of confession, I have something to confess. I don’t really like apologizing.
Lily: Really?
Jeff: Yeah.
Lily: But don’t you find that you have a lot to apologize for, or are you just too proud?
Jeff: Not really. No, I mean only when I screw up big time.
Lily: What if you bump into somebody in the street?
Jeff: They can deal with it.
Lily: Really?
Jeff: Yeah.
Lily: But what if they hate you forever?
Jeff: I don’t care about them.
Discussion
Lily sees Jeff and tells him “hi,” but then she apologizes right away. She thinks that she interrupted Jeff and she doesn’t want him to be mad at her.
Jeff doesn’t forgive Lily, though. He tells her that her incessant apologizing is actually annoying. It seems like she is making the problem worse by saying she’s sorry over and over and over.
For Lily, apologizing all the time is a way to clear the air. She’s paranoid that she’s going to do something wrong and that she’ll be in somebody’s way. Jeff feels differently, though. He doesn’t like apologizing. In fact, if he accidentally runs into somebody, he doesn’t even care.
Do you think that Lily is apologizing too much? Is Jeff too proud to apologize? Who’s right?
Jeff doesn’t forgive Lily, though. He tells her that her incessant apologizing is actually annoying. It seems like she is making the problem worse by saying she’s sorry over and over and over.
For Lily, apologizing all the time is a way to clear the air. She’s paranoid that she’s going to do something wrong and that she’ll be in somebody’s way. Jeff feels differently, though. He doesn’t like apologizing. In fact, if he accidentally runs into somebody, he doesn’t even care.
Do you think that Lily is apologizing too much? Is Jeff too proud to apologize? Who’s right?
Grammar Point
Tag Questions
Jeff notices something about Lily. He says, “You apologize a lot, don’t you?” This is an example of a tag question.
Tag questions are two word tags added to the end of a statement to make a question. Tag questions give the other person a chance to reply to something that has been said. Although we can use different words to make tag questions, they all mean the same thing: “Do you agree?” or “Am I right?”
We can make tag questions with both positive and negative statements. Positive statements will always have negative question tags, and negative statements will always have positive question tags.
To make a tag for a positive statement, use the negative form of the first auxiliary verb + subject (or its pronoun), as in, “Jane has already seen the movie, hasn’t she?” or “You are studying tonight, aren’t you?”
To make a tag for a negative statement, use the positive form of the auxiliary verb + subject (or pronoun), as in, “We didn’t eat very much, did we?” or, “He isn’t interested, is he?”
For sentences that do not have auxiliary verbs, use do, does or did. Like other tag questions, make a negative tag for a positive sentence and make a positive tag for a negative sentence. For example, “They don’t have a car, do they?” or “I forgot my lunch again, didn’t I?”
Tag questions can be used in past, present, or future tense, so it’s important tomatch the tense of the tag question to the tense of the original statement. For example, “We didn’t get very far, did we?” or “They will be there, won’t they?”
Which is correct, “You are really happy, are you?” or, “You are really happy, aren’t you?”
Jeff notices something about Lily. He says, “You apologize a lot, don’t you?” This is an example of a tag question.
Tag questions are two word tags added to the end of a statement to make a question. Tag questions give the other person a chance to reply to something that has been said. Although we can use different words to make tag questions, they all mean the same thing: “Do you agree?” or “Am I right?”
We can make tag questions with both positive and negative statements. Positive statements will always have negative question tags, and negative statements will always have positive question tags.
To make a tag for a positive statement, use the negative form of the first auxiliary verb + subject (or its pronoun), as in, “Jane has already seen the movie, hasn’t she?” or “You are studying tonight, aren’t you?”
To make a tag for a negative statement, use the positive form of the auxiliary verb + subject (or pronoun), as in, “We didn’t eat very much, did we?” or, “He isn’t interested, is he?”
For sentences that do not have auxiliary verbs, use do, does or did. Like other tag questions, make a negative tag for a positive sentence and make a positive tag for a negative sentence. For example, “They don’t have a car, do they?” or “I forgot my lunch again, didn’t I?”
Tag questions can be used in past, present, or future tense, so it’s important tomatch the tense of the tag question to the tense of the original statement. For example, “We didn’t get very far, did we?” or “They will be there, won’t they?”
Which is correct, “You are really happy, are you?” or, “You are really happy, aren’t you?”
Quiz
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