Jun
Thank you "for" xxx, Sorry "about" xxx ?? Thank you "for" + today, the other day, earlier, before, a while ago I am sorry "about" + xxx. I am not sure if all of these combinations are fine. Is it correct to use "for" for "Thank you" and "about" for "sorry"? Or are "for" and "about" interchangeable, or do they change the nuance or something? I have heard "sorry about before" but is "thank you about/for before" fine? Thank you
Nov 4, 2017 11:03 PM
Answers · 6
3
You wouldn't say "thank you about...", but you can say both "sorry for" and "sorry about" :)
November 4, 2017
2
Hi, Jun! Lauren is correct: we cannot say "thank you about," but we can say "sorry for." This is, unfortunately, one of the trickiest parts of English, because we have so many prepositional phrases that can only use certain prepositions. Don't worry too much if you're having trouble with these, because even native English speakers struggle (e.g. some of us mistakenly say "on accident," but it must be either "by accident" or "on purpose").
November 5, 2017
You received two good answers. To answer another question that I think you were asking, yes, you can say, "Sorry about before," or "Sorry about the other day." There is an implied action or event that is missing from these sentences, but this is a very common way of speaking. You could say... Sorry about breaking your vase earlier. Or Sorry about earlier. This implies that you and the listener both understand the reason for the apology, so it is unspoken. This is very common, especially if the speaker is a bit embarrassed about what happened.
November 5, 2017
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