I was perusing the net on the hunt for reliable sources to help me understand the subjunctive mood when I came across this section and it reminded me of this question!
I'll quote it in almost its entirety because first, it's very clear and it might be of help to other users and secondly, I liked it.
I. A phrase is a collection of words that may have nouns or verbals,
but it does not have a subject doing a verb. The following are
examples of phrases:
- leaving behind the dog
- smashing into a fence
- before the first test
- after the devastation
- between ignorance and intelligence
- broken into thousands of pieces
- because of her glittering smile
In these examples above, you will find nouns (dog, fence, test, devastation, ignorance,
intelligence, thousands, pieces). You also have some verbals (leaving,
smashing), but in no case is the noun functioning as a subject doing a
predicate verb. They are all phrases.
II. A clause is a collection of words that has a subject that is
actively doing a verb. The following are examples of clauses:
- since she laughs at diffident men
- I despise individuals of low character
- when the saints go marching in
- Obediah Simpson is uglier than a rabid raccoon
- because she smiled at him.
In the examples above, we find either a noun or a pronoun that is a subject (bold) attached to a predicate verb (italics) in each case:
- since she laughs at diffident men
- I despise individuals of low character
- when the saints go marching in
- Obediah Simpson is uglier than a rabid raccoon
- because she smiled at him
III. If the clause could stand by itself, and form a complete sentence with punctuation, we call the clause an independent clause. The following are independent clauses:
- I despise individuals of low character
- Obediah Simpson is uglier than a rabid racoon
We could easily turn independent clauses into complete sentences by adding appropriate punctuation marks. We might say, "I despise individuals of low character." Or we might write, "Obediah Simpson is uglier than a rabid racoon!" We call them independent because these types of clauses can stand independently by themselves, without any extra words attached, and be complete sentences.
Best Answer
While forgiveness is important to some religious views, I do not think it is particularly important in this case.
When you excuse someone, you allow them to escape the consequences of their actions.
When you forgive someone, you cease resenting those actions.
One can forgive someone in your heart, while still holding that they must be punished or not relieved of misfortunes their actions brought upon them. One can excuse someone, but still resent them.
In the overlap, one is often taken to include the other, because the two do often happen together.
It's also more likely to speak of excusing an action that did not have any volition, such as an accident or eructation, and forgive of a deliberate action that led to some harm whether that harm could be foreseen or not. It would not be unheard of for the other to be used.
There isn't really any social rank matter, bar different etiquette rules as to what things one should ask to be excused for. In particular, saying excuse me after breaking wind or burping was once a classic "non-U" identifier, that is an identifier of someone who was middle class trying to pass for upper class (the working class at the time might ask it, and might not, the middle class almost always would, while among the upper class the polite thing was for nobody to pass any comment on it). Such class markers are not as firm as once they were.