Apologizing in Italian

PRACTICAL IDEAS AND RESOURCES

Resources in this section curated by: Illena Trebont

How To Apologize In Italian | Article

This article provides information about two words that can be used to apologize in Italian: “dispiace” and “scusa.” It explains that “dispiace” is the more traditional form meaning “I’m sorry,” and is appropriate for situations in which you want to express true sorrow or regret. “Scusa,” on the other hand, is often translated as “excuse me,” and is typically used to apologize for minor offenses. This article also provides information about how to conjugate these verbs according to who you are talking to. 

ACADEMIC RESOURCES ON APOLOGIZING IN ITALIAN

Resources in this section curated by: Illena Trebont

Demir, C. & Takkac, M. (2016). Contrastive Pragmatics: Apologies & Thanks in English and Italian. International Journal of English Linguistics. 6. 73. 10.5539/ijel.v6n1p73. 

This study analyzes the differences in the way English and Italian speakers give thanks and apologize, and how this changes depending on the context in which the speech acts are taking place. In this study, researchers used several corpora for English and Italian in order to outline a number of apologizing and thanking strategies and compare their use in both languages. The findings suggest that English and Italian have similar thanking and apologizing strategies, but they differ in terms of their frequency of use.