Discover the French sentence "Je suis désolé"

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It includes a full explanation of what it is and how you can use it in a normal conversation with an audio example. Along with the useful things we sprinkled like synonyms, slow pronunciation audio, dialogue example and more!

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Table of Contents

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Translation in English

How to pronounce it?

Slow pronunciation

Normal pronunciation

Je suis désolé meaning

Definition

It literally means:

 

“Je suis désolé” is the common way to express “I am sorry” in French.

How to use

There are many ways to express your apologies in French, which one to choose will depend on the context and how much you want to apologize. Let’s break it into 4 scenarios:

1: Informal context and “normal” apologies, you can use:

  • Désolé → Sorry
  • Pardon → Sorry
  • Je suis désolé → I am sorry
  • Excuse-moi → Excuse me
  • Je m’excuse → I apologize
 

2: Formal context and “normal” apologies, use:

  • Désolé → Sorry
  • Pardon → Sorry
  • Je suis désolé → I am sorry
  • Excusez-moi → Excuse me
  • Je m’excuse → I apologize
 

3: Informal context and “big” apologies, use instead:

  • Je te demande pardon → I beg your pardon
  • Je suis vraiment désolé → I am really sorry
  • Je suis sincèrement désolé → I am sincerely sorry
 

4: Formal context and “big” apologies, you can choose one of those:

  • Toutes mes excuses → All my excuses/apologies
  • Je vous demande pardon → I beg your pardon
  • Je suis vraiment désolé → I am really sorry
  • Je suis sincèrement désolé → I am sincerely sorry
 

Synonyms

  • Désolé → Sorry
  • Pardon → Sorry
  • Excuse-moi → Excuse me
  • Excusez-moi → Excuse me (Formal)
  • Je m’excuse → I apologize
  • Toutes mes excuses → All my excuses/apologies (Formal)
  • Je suis désolé pour toi → I’m sorry for you
  • Je suis vraiment désolé → I am really sorry
  • Je suis sincèrement désolé → I am sincerely sorry
  • Je te demande pardon → I beg your pardon
  • Je vous demande pardon → I beg your pardon (Formal)

Example with audio dialogue

Audio dialogue from French people

Dialogue audio

Dialogue text

” Attention ! Tu marches sur mes chaussures ! “
” Be careful! You walk on my shoes! “
” Je suis désolé “
” I’m sorry “
” Pas de problème “
” No problem “
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