S O R R Y

"désolé" - français

- desolate

- disconsolate

- bleak

- stark

- woebegone

- sorry

"mi dispiace" - italiano

verb: dispiacere

- to displease

- to mind

- to hate

- to be sorry

"lo siento" - español

verb: sentir

- to feel

- to sense

- to regret

- to be sorry

These are three ways to say "I'm sorry." In every day usage and found in conversational French/Italian/Spanish phrases books as, simply, "I'm sorry." But if you really think about the literal meanings of the words composing these different translations of this little sentence, each is really unique and impressively more sorry-seeming than its English counterpart.

The literal meaning of a French person's "désolé (sorry)" to your sorry-inducing story is: "(I am) desolate." "I'm hungry!" "My cat is overweight :(" "The state of the world economy today makes me worried..." whatever your woes, I am desolate for you. What a show of sympathy - &what an adjective, right?! Thanks for being so expressive, Frenchmen.

so desolate.

In Italian, to say "I am sorry," is actually a bit of a grammar feat. "Mi dispiace," though it is one of the first phrases anyone learning the language will learn, involves indirect object pronouns and third person conjugation of verbs in the present tense. wowzas!! Haha anyway, the verb from which this phrase derives is "dispiacere" - the antonym of "piacere," I guess, which means "to please." So dispiacere means "to displease." And the little "mi" means "to me," so all in all the whole thing says to you, "(Something, it, that, the fact that your toe is stubbed, etc.) displeases me." Ultimately, empathizing with your worries. Dang yo, I really hate that this bad thing happened to you. That really bothers, bugs, irks me, like it does you. I'm really sorry.

empathy, according to google images

Spanish speakers are feeeeeeeeling you when you're down in the dumps - "lo siento" is similar to the Italian one in the grammar feat department, except it literally means "I feel it." So it's not exactly the same as the Italians' saying that empathizes with you, but this one still expresses that the speaker knows what you're feeling and feels the same way about it. This is like AH I put my figurative hand over my figurative heart and literally say I am so sorry - I feel your pain. 

YOU WHAT?! WOW THAT SUCKS; YOUR PAIN MY PAIN

I know all this makes the English "I'm sorry" seem boring, too normal, whatever, but sorry derives from "sorrow" which is pretty dramatic and sorrowful, too. Haha so no need to hate on English.

hey man i'm really sorry

All of this I will mean the next time I tell you "I'm sorry."


P.S. Koreans on the other hand...