Learn English – differences between sentences with ‘sorry’

grammarmeaning

What are the differences between the following sentences with 'sorry':

  1. I'm sorry for disturbing you.

  2. I'm sorry to disturb you.

  3. I'm sorry to have disturbed you.

  4. I'm sorry that I disturbed you.

  5. I'm sorry that I have disturbed you.

Suppose: I've recently disturbed someone unknowingly, or I've realized that I'm disturbing someone, or I disturbed someone in the past and now realized my mistake. How should I apologize for my mistake? I also want to know which sentence is appropriate in which situation?

Best Answer

sorry for

apology/regret (for both past and immediate actions)

sorry to

regret

it is better to use sorry to for immediate actions

in your case,
sorry for disturbing you - you are apologizing for what you did a while ago (you can even add an adverb of time eg 'sorry for disturbing you earlier')
but
sorry to disturb you - eg you now want to pass some important information to your boss but he is currently busy, you knock on the door and say 'sorry to disturb you but...'
sadness eg 'I'm sorry to hear that you've been ill'

sorry that

regret/sadness

I'm sorry to have disturbed you

use it to end your conversation if you disturbed somebody while they were working.

As to I'm sorry that I disturbed you & I'm sorry that I have disturbed you
I've never used this and never heard someone using it.
Sometimes I've used I'm sorry if I disturbed you which to me is the same as I'm sorry to have disturbed you.