Catalan apologies are scaled to the offence. Perdó repairs a bump, interruption, or small slip; ho sento and em sap greu express real regret; disculpi can open a formal apology or politely interrupt someone. For meaningful harm, the formula is only the beginning: acknowledging what happened, accepting responsibility, and offering a repair make the apology credible.
English “sorry” covers attention-getting, sympathy, minor accidents, and serious wrongdoing. Catalan distributes those jobs among several expressions. Translating every “sorry” as ho sento can sound heavy for a tiny interruption, while using only perdó after a serious failure can sound dismissive.
A severity ladder
| Expression | Typical function | Register and weight |
|---|---|---|
| perdó | small accident, interruption, self-correction | neutral; light |
| perdona / perdoni | apology to tu / vostè, or attention-getter | informal / formal according to person |
| disculpa / disculpi | explicit excuse/apology to tu / vostè | neutral / courteous-formal |
| ho sento | genuine regret, bad news, harm | neutral; emotionally explicit |
| em sap greu | regret about an action or situation | neutral; highly idiomatic |
| li demano disculpes | explicit formal apology | (formal) |
Perdó, no t'havia vist i t'he trepitjat.
Sorry, I hadn't seen you and I stepped on your foot.
Ho sento molt; no hauria d'haver explicat allò sense preguntar-t'ho.
I'm very sorry; I shouldn't have told people that without asking you.
The first repair matches an accidental, momentary offence. The second names the behavior and recognizes that it was wrong. Intensity should follow the harm, not the speaker's desire to end an uncomfortable conversation.
Perdó, perdona, and disculpi
Perdó can stand alone immediately after a minor collision or mistake. With rising intonation, Perdó? can request repetition. Perdona and perdoni are person-marked: use perdona with tu and perdoni with vostè. As explained under getting attention, these same forms can acknowledge an interruption without confessing wrongdoing.
Perdó, he premut el botó que no tocava.
Sorry, I pressed the wrong button.
Disculpi el retard, senyora Mas; el tren ha quedat aturat vint minuts.
Please excuse the delay, Ms Mas; the train was held up for twenty minutes. (formal)
Disculpi fits formal address and takes third-person agreement around it. A title can identify the addressee, but stacking perdoni, disculpi, mil perdons does not make a routine apology better. Choose one opening and move quickly to the relevant explanation or repair.
Ho sento and em sap greu
Both expressions convey regret, but their grammar differs. Ho sento literally contains the direct-object pronoun ho: the regretted matter is taken as a whole. Em sap greu is an idiom in which the situation “feels bad to me”; do not translate its individual words literally.
Ho sento, avui no he estat gens just amb tu.
I'm sorry; I wasn't at all fair to you today.
Em sap greu que no pugueu venir a la celebració.
I'm sorry that you can't come to the celebration.
After em sap greu que, Catalan normally uses the subjunctive because the clause is evaluated emotionally rather than asserted as the main new fact. With a noun or infinitive, no que clause is necessary: em sap greu el malentès; em sap greu arribar tard.
For sympathy about something the speaker did not cause, em sap greu and ho sento can both respond compassionately. Do not falsely accept blame; express sympathy for the event.
Em sap molt greu el que ha passat. Si necessites res, truca'm.
I'm very sorry about what happened. If you need anything, call me.
Responsibility, explanation, and excuse
An explanation answers why; an excuse tries to reduce blame. If you put the reason before accepting responsibility, the listener may hear self-defense. For serious failures, begin with the acknowledgement and then explain briefly.
T'he fet esperar quaranta minuts i no t'he avisat. Ho sento; ha estat culpa meva.
I kept you waiting for forty minutes and didn't let you know. I'm sorry; it was my fault.
Em sap greu haver perdut el document. En prepararé una còpia nova abans de migdia.
I'm sorry I lost the document. I'll prepare a new copy before noon.
The second apology includes a concrete repair. Compare a weaker version, és que he tingut molta feina, which foregrounds the speaker's circumstances and leaves the loss unresolved. És que... can explain a minor delay naturally, but it should not erase agency when the speaker caused real harm.
Perdona que arribi tard; és que s'ha espatllat el metro i no tenia cobertura per avisar-te.
Sorry I'm late; the metro broke down and I had no signal to let you know.
Here the reason is proportionate and informative. The speaker still apologizes first.
Formal and informal exchanges
An informal apology may be short when repair is easy:
—Perdona, t'he agafat el paraigua pensant que era el meu. —No passa res; deixa'l al costat de la porta. —Gràcies, ara mateix.
—Sorry, I took your umbrella thinking it was mine. —No worries; leave it by the door. —Thanks, right away. (informal)
A formal apology maintains vostè agreement and usually identifies the corrective action:
—Senyora Vidal, li demano disculpes per haver-li enviat una factura incorrecta. —Gràcies per avisar-me. —Ja l'hem anul·lada i avui mateix en rebrà una de nova.
—Ms Vidal, I apologize for sending you an incorrect invoice. —Thank you for letting me know. —We've already canceled it, and you'll receive a new one today. (formal)
The formal plural l'hem anul·lada represents the organization and agrees the participle with the preceding direct-object clitic in careful usage. The socially essential point is the sequence: error, apology, remedy.
Responding to an apology
For a minor inconvenience, no passa res, tranquil/tranquil·la, cap problema, or no et preocupis can close the episode. With vostè, use no es preocupi. No cal can stop unnecessary apologizing. These formulas release the other person from a small social debt.
—Perdó pel soroll. —Cap problema, gairebé no l'he sentit.
—Sorry about the noise. —No problem, I hardly heard it.
—Disculpi, m'he equivocat de finestreta. —No es preocupi; l'atendran a la del costat.
—Sorry, I went to the wrong counter. —Don't worry; they'll help you at the next one. (formal)
Do not automatically say no passa res when something serious did happen. The injured person may accept the apology without erasing the consequence: Gràcies per dir-m'ho; necessito temps or Accepto les disculpes, però ho hem de solucionar.
—Ho sento. Vaig compartir el missatge sense permís. —Agraeixo que ho reconeguis, però ara necessito que l'esborris de tot arreu.
—I'm sorry. I shared the message without permission. —I appreciate you acknowledging it, but now I need you to delete it everywhere.
Repairing a failed apology
Defensive additions such as si t'has ofès shift responsibility onto the listener. If the first attempt fails, repair it by naming the act directly.
—Em sap greu si t'ho has pres malament. —El problema és que vas riure de mi davant de tothom. —Tens raó. Em sap greu haver-ho fet; va ser cruel i no es repetirà.
—I'm sorry if you took it badly. —The problem is that you laughed at me in front of everyone. —You're right. I'm sorry I did that; it was cruel and won't happen again.
The repaired version drops the conditional “if,” accepts the listener's account, and makes a commitment. This is a pragmatic repair, not merely a vocabulary substitution.
Regional and multilingual context
Perdó, ho sento, and em sap greu are broadly understood across Catalan-speaking regions. (regional: Valencian) disculpe/perdone are ordinary formal forms, paired with disculpa/perdona for familiar address. Communities differ in the frequency of individual formulas and in how much explanation accompanies an apology. Balearic, Northwestern, Northern, Alguerese, and Central practices should not be reduced to one stereotype. Contact with Spanish, French, or Italian also affects local routines, but word-for-word borrowing does not guarantee the same social force.
Common Mistakes
⚠️ Ho sento, on és l'estació?
Miscalibrated — ho sento expresses regret; it is heavy as a routine attention-getter.
✅ Perdoni, em podria dir on és l'estació?
Excuse me, could you tell me where the station is? (formal)
❌ Perdoni, t'he trencat les ulleres.
Incorrect person mixture — perdoni is vostè, but t' is tu.
✅ Perdona, t'he trencat les ulleres i te'n compraré unes de noves.
I'm sorry, I broke your glasses and I'll buy you a new pair. (informal, with repair)
❌ Em sap greu que no podeu venir.
Incorrect — an emotionally evaluated que-clause requires the subjunctive here.
✅ Em sap greu que no pugueu venir aquesta vegada.
I'm sorry that you can't come this time.
⚠️ Em sap greu si t'has sentit humiliat.
Contextually evasive as an apology — si makes the listener's reaction conditional and avoids naming the speaker's act.
✅ Em sap greu haver-te humiliat davant dels companys.
I'm sorry I humiliated you in front of your colleagues.
Correction practice
Scale and repair these: (1) after lightly bumping someone: Ho sento moltíssim; (2) after sending a client the wrong file: Perdó; (3) mixed address: Disculpi, no t'he avisat. Proportionate versions are Perdó; Li demano disculpes per haver-li enviat el fitxer equivocat; ara mateix li envio el correcte; and either informal Disculpa, no t'he avisat or formal Disculpi, no l'he avisat.
Key Takeaways
- Use perdó for light mishaps and ho sento/em sap greu for genuine regret or sympathy.
- Keep perdona/disculpa with tu and perdoni/disculpi with vostè.
- For meaningful harm, name the action, accept responsibility, and offer a concrete repair.
- Answer small apologies with no passa res or cap problema; serious harm need not be minimized.
- If an apology fails, remove defensive si clauses and acknowledge exactly what the other person says was harmful.
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