"I'm sorry"

[jbsegal]

English needs seperate terms for "It is my fault and I apologize" and "I am unhappy in sympathy with your unhappiness".

Am I just showing a lacuna in my vocabulary?

Comments

Re: inadequate patois of saxon invaders trying to pick up anglo barmaids.

[hammercock.livejournal.com]

I was further confused by having several Indian national coworkers at DEC for whom any form of "I'm sorry" was just a polite conversational placeholder for "sucks to be you then, this changes nothing".

That explains the customer disservice I got from Dell a year or two ago.