I was amused with the line, “Stand-alone 'sorry' may have dressed like a gentleman, but his heart was made of India rubber” in the article titled “A poor apology for a word” in December 13 New York Times.
It says “the average British person says 'sorry' eight times a day — or “204,536 times in three score years and ten,” in the reporter’s Old Testament idiom.”
Is “sorry” predominantly used in both the UK and the US when you are apologizing for something, or asking somebody to repeat something that you have not hard clearly (OALD) in comparison with “pardon,” and “excuse me”?
Are there any significant difference of meaning and nuance among “sorry,” “pardon” and “excuse me,” or they are perfectly interchangeable?
Best Answer
This is complicated. I will describe American English:
Situations where "excuse me" is better than "sorry":
Situations where "sorry" is better than "excuse me":
Situations where they are interchangeable:
In general "pardon" and "pardon me" mean the same thing as "excuse me" but are more formal.
Both "excuse me" and "pardon me" can be said in anger, for instance, if someone is standing in your way (see bullet point one under excuse me) and you feel they are being quite inconsiderate and should have realized that they were in the way, you might say "excuse me!" in your angriest voice. But it's much rarer to say "sorry" in anger (except sarcastically, when you are not in fact sorry).