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Questions & Answers about Tut es Ihnen leid?
Why is it Ihnen instead of Sie?
The German expression for being sorry is leidtun. Germans don't say "Are you sorry?", they literally say "Does it do sorrow to you?". Because the feeling is happening to the person, we must use the dative case. The formal "you" (Sie) becomes Ihnen in the dative case.
Why is Ihnen capitalized?
In German, capitalizing Ihnen makes it the formal "you" (used for strangers or people in authority). If it were lowercase (ihnen), it would mean "to them", and the sentence would mean "Are they sorry?".
What is the word es doing here?
The word es means "it" and is the actual subject of the sentence. While in English you say "Are you sorry", German phrases it as "Does it do sorrow to you?". The es stands for the "it" or the situation that is causing the regret.
Why is leid at the very end of the sentence?
The full verb is leidtun (to be sorry), which is a separable verb. In a question, the conjugated part (tut) comes first, and the separable prefix (leid) gets pushed to the very end of the sentence.