Ruby Chen
Could I say.."sorry for bother you. you could just go on with your work." ? or are there any better expression?
Jul 29, 2014 1:52 PM
Answers · 5
1
Possibly you want to say 'Sorry *to* bother you. You *can* just go on with you work.' I'm not 100% what you mean to say ... could you clarify the context please? Do you want to apologise *after* speaking with them and tell them to go back to work, or do you want them to stop so you can talk to them?
July 29, 2014
1
Frances makes a good point. It very much depends on what you are doing when you say this. If, for example, you are entering a room where people (e.g. students or office workers) are working and they look up to see who has entered... you could say "Sorry for the interruption. Please continue working." or "please carry on with your work". It must be said that you would only say this if you are in a position of some authority (e.g. a teacher or principal wanting to talk the teacher of the class or a manager wanting to talk to talk to the supervisor or simply to observe the work.) That is, you can only say it if you have the authority to tell them what to do. Now, if you are interrupting a co-worker to ask a question, as you are leaving you can say what Su Ki suggested "Sorry to have bothered you. I'll let you get back to your work now." or "I'll let you get on with your work now." In this situation, you don't have the authority to tell your co-worker what to do; you are just saying that you will stop bothering him/her (at least for now).
July 29, 2014
1
If you have already disturbed them, you would say 'Sorry for bothering you'. and then the most normal thing to add would be: 'I'll let you get on with your work now.'
July 29, 2014
1
It is better to say "I'm sorry for bothering you. You can carry on with your work/with what you were doing."
July 29, 2014
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