Learn English – You can apologise *for* something, but can you apologise *that* something

word-usage

An interesting discussion came up in the chat following a sentence I suggested in another question where I said something along the lines of "I apologise that I have a prior commitment." or "I apologise that I will be unavailable this evening."

To my eye and ear, this is a perfectly valid construction, where "I apologise" has almost the same meaning as "I'm sorry" and can therefore be used in place of it, but general consensus is that I'm incorrect and this is ungrammatical or at least incredibly rare.

Now I understand the subtle difference between the definitions of "sorry" and "apology":

Sorry—feeling regret, compunction, sympathy, pity, etc.: to be sorry to leave one’s friends; to be sorry for a remark; to be sorry for someone in trouble.

Apology—a written or spoken expression of one’s regret, remorse, or sorrow for having insulted, failed, injured, or wronged another: He demanded an apology from me for calling him a crook.

so I'm really only asking in the context that the apology is for failing or otherwise inconveniencing someone (as having a prior commitment might).

The ngram and COCA results do indeed point to this as a highly irregular use, but there are enough results that I can argue its validity even though it's clearly less common than "apologi(s|z)e for" and I'm really curious as to whether anyone else considers this valid, has heard/seen it used, or can confirm whether this is possibly a dialectal or regional quirk. Or maybe I'm just completely wrong and should stop saying I apologise that things.

Ngram:

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COCA:

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Best Answer

From Sorry About That: The Language of Public Apology by Edwin L. Battistella

That versus If

It is also possible to use a noun clause as the direct object of apologize. There are two main types. One begins with the word that and introduces a presumed fact (grammarians call it a factive clause). Someone might say, "I apologize that I have not gotten back to you yet," or "I apologize that I have not written in so long."

In such sentences, the subjects of the two clauses are the same (The repeated pronoun I). The subjects of the two clauses can also differ, as in "I apologize that the exams are not graded yet, " or "We apologize that you were unable to use your card due to the renewable date." In these examples, grammar obscures the cause of the harm. In the first, the passive clause the exams are not graded yet hides the agent of the non-grading. In the second, were unable (a predicative adjective) and due to (an instrumental preposition) suppress the agency as well. It would be a different message to say "We apologize that we deactivated your card."

The author then provides a solid example uttered by the Republican ex- candidate Mike Huckabee who apologized after he joked that an unexpected offstage noise was Democrat Barack Obama looking to avoid a gunman.

"I made an offhand remark that was in no way intended to offend or disparage Sen. Obama. I apologize that my comments were offensive, that was never my intention.

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