ISSN: 2581-8651 Journal of Humanities and

Vol-5, Issue-3, May-Jun 2023

Education Development
https://dx.doi.org/10.22161/jhed.5.3.6
Peer-Reviewed Journal (JHED)

The Similarities and Differences in Expressing Apology In

English And Vietnamese
M.A Nguyen Thi Hong Hanh

Lecturer, Thanh Hoa University of Culture, Sports and Tourism, Viet Nam

Received: 14 Apr 2023; Received in revised form: 15 May 2023; Accepted: 21 May 2023
©2023 The Author(s). Published by TheShillonga. This is an open access article under the CC BY license
(https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)
Abstract
This paper was conducted to see on the similarities and differences in expressing apology in English and Vietnamese. So as
to gather more believable data, the qualitative method including the review of literature and the analysis of some researches
related to the topic. Based on the data collected from various types of books and dictionary and internet sources, the author
pointed out the similarities and differences in expressing apologies in the two languages and the value of apology culture. As
a result, we can improve our communication skills in the daily life.
Keywords— similarities, differences, expressing apology, English, Vietnamese
I. INTRODUCTION will contribute a small part to improve the quality of
Nowadays, English has become a global language learning English as the second language in Viet Nam.
which are widely used in almost every country. English is
not just the mean of communication, but also the official II. LITERATURE REVIEW
language of many fields such as politics, culture,
Definitions of apology.
economics, sports, etc. The learning of English is thus,
plays a vital role in the people’s success. From the view of Speech acts, apologies are
expressive illocutionary acts. Kasper and Bergman (1993)
When studying a language, it is essential to
defined apologies as compensatory action to an offense in
master the knowledge of the culture of that country and the
the doing of which the speaker was causally involved and
knowledge of that language itself. English and Vietnamese
which is costly to the Hearer. This conceptualization is
language are of different culture, as a result, there are
supported by Goffman's (1997) view of apologies as
many differences between the two languages as those in
remedial interchanges serving to re-establish social
grammar, lexicology, translation, phonetics, semantics and
harmony after a real or virtual offense.
so on, and the understanding of these matters brings about
good access to the languages. Apology is called for when social norms have
been violated, whether the offence is real or potential. It is
Apologizing is a speech act used very often and
assumed that there are two participants: an apologizer and
naturally in our daily life. It plays an important role in
a recipient of the apology. The act of apologizing requires
communication. In day-to-day life, we are in interpersonal
an action or an utterance intended to "set things right" (
relationship. Therefore, we sometimes make mistakes or
Trosborg, 1987). In the decision to carry out the verbal
do something wrong and we have to apologize to others to
apology, the speaker (S) is willing to humiliate himself or
maintain our conversations or social relation. In order to
herself to some extent and to admit to fault and
get a harmonious relationship, we should master the ways
responsibility for the act. Hence the act of aplologizing is
to express an apology. This has so long been the matter of
face-saving for the Hearer (H) and face-threatening to S in
our interest which encourages us to carry out a small study
Brown and Levinson's (1978) term.
of verbal aspects of expressing apologies in English vs.
Vietnamese. Works on expressing apology.
The author has conducted this article entitled: A number of studies regarding the speech act of
"Similarities and differences in expressing apology in apologizing have been carried out by such authors as
English and Vietnamese” with the hope that this paper Kasper et al (1989,1996), Trosborg (1987,1995), Olshtain

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Hanh Journal of Humanities and Education Development (JHED)
J. Humanities Educ. Dev.- 5(3)-2023

(1989) and Phuong (2000). Studies of interlanguage Different from above studies, Phuong (2000)
apologizing have essential addressed the same research assumed these five strategies into two core categories:
question-the accessibility of apology strategies to non- direct strategy via an IFID and indirect strategies including
native speakers. Kasper and Berman (1993) investigated the others. As regards the selection of strategies, the
perception and performance in native and non-native noteworthy finding was the differences between English
apology by means of a Dialogue Construction and Vietnamese in the level of directness and indirectness
questionnaire, completed by three groups of informants: employed in informal as well as in powerful settings. In
native speakers of American English, Thai and Thai non- terms of the manipulation of lexico-modal markers, the
native speakers of English. The DC data were coded into data showed that in addressing the ten different
the five major categories summarized according to the conversational patterns, the English speakers used more
semantic formula identified as constituting the apology lexico-modal markers than do the Vietnamese speakers,
speech act set ( Olshtain and Cohen, 1983; Blum-Kulka et especially such modal markers as intensifiers,
al, 1989). subjectivizers, downtoners and hedges. However,
(i) IFID ( iilocutionary Force Indicating Device ), Vietnamese speakers provided more politeness markers
specifying the force of apology. than the English speakers. Despite of great significance of
being the first cross-cultural study of apologies in English
(ii) Upgrading, including element increasing
and Vietnamese, this study still possesses a conspicuous
apologetic force and Taking on Responsibility.
gap in its analytical framework. Due to the over-
(iii) Downgrading responsibility or severity of simplification of grouping apology strategies into two
offense, comprising of utterances reducing S's categories: direct and indirect, the manipulation of each of
accountability for the offence or severity of offence. the strategies constituting the speech act apologizing seems
(iv) Offer of repair, s showing to remedy damage. to have been obscured. Hence, the actual wordings of
apologies, especially the IFID, have not been carefully
(v) Verbal redress, S showing concern for H,
analyzed.
efforts to appease or promise of forbearance.
Throughout the above discussion of speech act
As an interlanguage study, Trobogrg’s paper
theory, politeness theory and previous studies on apology,
(1996) dealt with the act of apologizing in complaint-
now we have had in mind panoramic view of the
apology situation as realized in the speech of Danish
fundamental theoretical issue relating to the realization of
learners of English compared to native speakers’
the speech act set of apology.
performance. She outlined 4 categories including 8
strategies in order to increasing directness. Strategies used in expressing apology

Unlike inerlanguage studies of apologizing, cross- Explicit expressions of apology

cultural studies have laid a great emphasis on a comparison When an offence is committed, the speaker may
of the apology realization patterns cross- linguistically. choose to express his/her apology explicitly from a variety
Olshtain ( 1989) and Phuong ( 2000) are among the of apologetic formula called the illocutionary Force
authors who carry out such a type of studies. Olshtain Indicating Device (IFID). There are different views on
(1989) implemented a cross-cultural study focusing on what the illocutionary Force Indicating Device is for the
similarities and differences of the realization patterns of act of apologizing.
apologies in four different languages: Hebrew, Australian
According to Austin (1962) and Searle (1969),
English, Canadian French, provided by speakers of the
the verb "apologize" in the present indicative, with a first
four languages by means of the identical CCSARP
person singular subject is pointed as the explicit
discourse completion questionnaire (Blum-Kulka et al,
performative (the 'normal form' for the act of apologizing.
1989). The speech act set (Olshtain and Cohen, 1983)
On the contrary, Owen (1983) claims that "historical
consist five main apology strategies- an IFID, an
evidence warns us against setting up apologies as
expression of responsibilities, an explanation or an account
illocutionary acts in their own rights, with expressions of
of the violation, an offer of repair, and a promise of
regret, request for forgiveness, and so on, regarded as
forbearance. The other three units are intensifiers within
"indirect", i.e. in some sense subsidiary and derived ways
the IFID, concern for H and minimizing the offence.
of performing the same act". Trosborg (1995) accepts
Surprisingly, Olshtain found no correlation between the
Owen's claim to the effect that " historically a perceived
use of responsibility and the other three strategies and
equivalence of interactional function between the two
socio-pragmatic factors, which was opposed to Kasper’s
utterances can be postulated" (Owen, 1983). She presents a
findings that Distance covaried with responsibility.
set of explicit apology expressions which are categorized

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Hanh Journal of Humanities and Education Development (JHED)
J. Humanities Educ. Dev.- 5(3)-2023

into three subgroups with regard to level of formality and * Positive expressions of regret and apology including
restrictions on occurrence. They are expression of regret, "sorry" and "apology"
request for forgiveness and offer of apology. * Negative expression of regret and apology including
Expressing regret and "regret" and"afaid"
apology. Requesting forgiveness
In terms of restriction on occurrence and
activities, We classified the group into two smaller
subgroups
Table 1: IFIDs for Apologies in English and Vietnamese
IFIDs
Subformulate
English Vietnamese
be sorry xin lçi
Positive
apologize
1. Expressing regret and apology
regret rÊt tiÕc
Negative
afaid e r»ng, sî lµ
a. excuse xin lçi
b. forgive thø lçi
lîng thø
bá qua
bá qu¸
tha thø
tha lçi
2. Requesting forgiveness
c. pardon thø lçi
lîng thø
bá qu¸
tha téi
x¸ téi
©n x¸
th«ng c¶m
2.0 Requesting sympathy hiÓu cho
ch©m tríc

Acknowledgement of responsibility - You know I am bad at... (Tôi biết tôi không giỏi
With an effort to placate the offended party, the về....)
speaker often chooses to express responsibility for the - It was a mistake (Đó là một sai lầm)
offense which created the need to apologize. - I'm so careless ( Đây là sơ suất của em)
• Self-blame • Lack of intent
The speaker explicitly acknowledges the fact that The speaker explicit states that he/she hasn't
it was his/her fault, including expression of deficiency and intended to hurt the Hearer through his/her offence
explicit self-blame. For example:
E.g: - I didn't mean to up set you (Tôi không cố ý làm
E.g - I'm so forgetful. (Tôi thật cẩu thả) bạn khó chịu)

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Hanh Journal of Humanities and Education Development (JHED)
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- I'm sorry, Professor. I did not intend to do so, I - We are all creatures of influence.
was going to note the name of the author, but I was so • Blame themselves
absorbed in writing that I forgot.
The offence committed by S can be partly
( Xin lỗi giáo sư. Em không cố ý đâu ạ. Em đã định chú excused by S blaming both of them for the offense.
thích tên tác giả nhưng mải viết nên em quên mất)
- Sorry, perhaps both of us did not pay attention
• Admission of facts What to do now?
The speaker does not deny his/her involvement in ( Xin lỗi có lẽ hai chúng ta đều không chú ý. Thế
the offence but attempts to avoid openly accepting his/her nào bây giờ? )
responsibility.
• Pretend not to notice the offence
E.g: - I forgot about it. (Tôi quên khuấy mất .)
- Professor, what has happened? I don't
- I haven't done that for you. Tomorrow is OK? I understand
promise I will Finish it for you.
( Thưa giáo sư có chuyện gì xảy ra vậy ạ, em
(Em à , anh chưa kịp làm cho em mất rồi. Thôi để ngày không hiểu. )
mai nhé. Anh hứa sẽ cố gắng làm xong cho em.)
• Future task-oriented remark
Explanation or account
- Let 's go to work then!
• Implicit explanation
• Humor
E.g: - Such thing are bound to happen, you know
In order to pacify the Hearer, the Speaker may
(Những chuyện như thế sẽ xảy ra, anh biết rồi đấy)
add some humorous sense to his response.
- Traffic is always so heavy in the morning.
E.g: - Oh, what a terrible mistake. Broke the
(Sáng nay xe cô đông đúc quá) appointment with you. But don't worry as I never break an
• Explicit explanation appointment the 4th time. I myself will bring it to your
house tonight.
E.g: - Sorry, I'm late, but my car broke down
( ấy thật có lỗi quá. anh đã sai hẹn với em. Nhưng em yên
(Xin lỗi tôi đến muộn, nhưng xe ô tô của tôi bị
tâm vì chưa bao giờ anh qua hẹn đến lần thứ tư đâu. Anh
hỏng)
sẽ tự tay mang đến nhà cho em vào tối nay. )
- Oh, sorry! Let me clean it up for you. "
• Appeaser
Sympathize with me". That boy did not take enough
notice. The Speaker makes an effort to appease the
Hearer by employing compensatory offers which are not
(Ôi xin lỗi cậu! để tôi lau sạch giúp cậu. Cậu thông cảm
directly connected with the Speaker's offense.
nhé. Cậu bé kí chẳng để ý gì cả )
E.g: - I'm sorry. I am repairing your watch. Please,
Minimization
wait a minute. I will try to finish it. Please, sit down and
• Minimizing the degree of offense take a cup of tea.
The speaker argues that the supposed offence is of minor ( Xin lỗi chị. Đồng hồ của chị em đang sửa. Xin chị ngồi
important, in fact is hardly worth mentioning. chờ một lát em cố gắng sửa xong. Mời chị ngồi uống trà. )
Opting out
E.g: - I'm sorry, but I did not think it would matter The Speaker completely rejects responsibility for
( Tôi xin lỗi nhưng tôi không nghĩ điều đó đáng the offense.
để bận tâm) • Explicit denial of responsibility
- Oh, what does that matter, that's nothing The Speaker explicitly denies that an offence has
(Ồ vấn đề đó có là gì đâu) occurred or that he/she has responsibility for that.
• Querying preconditions - It was not my fault. (Đó không phải là lỗi của
tôi)
the speaker queries the preconditions on which the offence
is commited. • Blame the hearer
- Well, everybody that, what is love then? The Speaker denies his/her responsibility by blaming the
Hearer.

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Hanh Journal of Humanities and Education Development (JHED)
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E.g: - It's your fault. (Đó là lỗi của anh) The result shows that Es and Vs exhibited the
- You - go- like-that? Must be careful. same trend towards their preference for Responsibility
although Vs were prone to opt for more Responsibility
( Cậu đi đứng thế à? Phải cẩn thân chứ)
then Es in almost all of the situations and significantly in
• Pretend to be offended. powerless and equal power unfamiliar settings.
The Speaker acts as if he/she was the offended In addition, the two languages show their agreement on
partly. using the least Acknowledgement of Responsibility.
E.g: I'm the one to be offended. ( Tôi là người bị hại) English and Vietnamese people were similar to
each other in affording a greater amount of Responsibility
in familiar settings in unfamiliar ones in all types of power
III. METHODS
situations. It proves that the context-external factors
The study is done with the review of literature Distance correlated negatively with the choice of this
and the consideration of some previous research on the strategy in both English and Vietnamese. Es and Vs agree
topic. Besides, the typical examples are extracted from on expressing more Responsibility for the offensive act,
various types of books and dictionary and internet sources the closer they were to the offended party and conversely,
as well. the more distant the relationship to the offended person,
In this paper, we just make a small investigation the less they were prone to acknowledge their
into some kinds of structures used for expressing apologies responsibility.
in Vietnamese and English and then point out the Nevertheless, the context-external factor Power
similarities and differences in expressing apologies in the was not found to be dramatically associated with both
two languages. Vietnamese and English compliance of the Responsibility
in their apologies.
IV. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION 1.3. Remedial support
1.Similarities in expressing apology in English and 1.3.1. Offer of repair
Vietnamese. The two language groups show a close agreement
1.1. Expressions of apology on the tendency towards repairing or compensating for the
damage. Both groups in all situations provided this
1.1.1. Overall use of expression of apology
strategy but the need for Offer of Repair significantly
English and Vietnamese tend to choose varied with the situation. (Kieu, Thi HongVan. (2000).
Expression of Apology in a majority of situations to Apology in English and Vietnamese, pp.66 )
approximately similar degrees. The fact that expression of
1. 3.2. Promise for forbearance
apology were employed at a fairly high rate by English and
Vietnamese subjects in all the constellations of P and D Promise of forbearance only occurred as
indicates no correlation between the social dimensions supportive moves in the two languages. The most common
(P,D) and the of compliance of Expression of Apology. promises in English data were “I will never do it again” or
Thus the great similarities between the two language “It won’t happen again”. In Vietnamese data, apart from a
groups have been pointed out. statement similar to that in English “Em sẽ không bao giờ
làm thế nữa ạ”, another common expression can be
1.1.2. Use of sub-formulate of IFIDs
observed “Em sẽ rút kinh nghiệm lần sau.”.
The two language groups are still significantly
2. Differences in expressing apology in English and
similar in providing Positive Regret and Apology in almost
Vietnamese.
all of the situations studied (Kieu, Thi HongVan. (2000).
Apology in English and Vietnamese, pp.50 ) 2.1. Overall use of expressions of apology.
1.2. Acknowledgement of responsibility. According to Hong Van ( Kieu,Van.(2000).
Apologies in English and Vietnamese), only a few
When a speaker exploits a direct expression of
statistically significant differences were found in terms of
apology such as “I’m sorry” or “I apologize”, he/ she
the frequency of apology strategy usage, especially that of
implicitly acknowledges his/ her involvement in the
Explicit Expressions of Apology and Acknowledgement of
offence. Yet, an explicit expression of Responsibility is
Responsibility. English people offer much less Expressions
often added to an Expression of Apology in sincere
of Apology than Vietnamese people. The use of
apology (Olshtain, 1989).
Expressions of Apology in English and Vietnamese can be

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Hanh Journal of Humanities and Education Development (JHED)
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ascribed to the matter of cost, which is perceived - I am sorry, I am late. Forgive me.
differently by the two groups in different cultures. - Pardon me for asking.
In communication, the English avoided admitting Compared to English, Vietnamese has more linguistic
responsibility for the serious offense which would be forms of Requesting Forgiveness:
concomitant with an explicit apology. Unlike the English,
thứ lỗi, lượng thứ, bỏ qua, bỏ quá, tha thứ, tha lỗi, tha tội,
the Vietnamese have a sentiment-respectint Eastern living
xá tội, ân xá. Among these forms
style with flexible behavioral principles ( them, 1997:612).
A sincere apology for the committed offense in this case " thứ lỗi, lượng thứ, bỏ quá" also used in polite expressions
may be accepted by a Vietnamese professor. And it may be like" excuse, forgive and pardon" in English. " bỏ qua" is a
more costly for Speaker if he/she does not apologize neutral word, which can be opted for in many kinds of
explicitly and sincerely. Therefore, most of the Vietnamese settings. "tha thứ, tha lỗi, tha tội, xá tội, ân xá " can be
people offer explicit apologies in communication. provided for very serious offenses. All these forms can be
used by the Speaker to request forgiveness from the
2.2. The use of sub formula of IFIDs.
Hearer. With a variety of forms and a wider range of
Another striking finding is that of the difference utility, Requesting Forgiveness in Vietnamese will,
between English people and Vietnamese people in their obviously, be used more frequently than that in English for
suppliance of the subformula Requesting Forgiveness. The substantive apologies.
data obtained from the study of Hong Van. (2000)
- Mong thầy luợng thứ ạ
indicated that the English do not use Requesting Sympathy
for apologizing while it is a fairly popular way of ( wish - teacher - forgive)
apologizing in Vietnamese. In general, the linguistic form - Mong anh bỏ quá cho.
of Requesting Sympathy is that of a subject-omitted
( wish - you - forgive)
statement with a frequent presence of either verb :
Xin(beg) or mong (wish). Requesting Sympathy can be With respect to Positive Regret and Apology, the
used alone or together with some form of Forgiveness like Vietnamese seem to opt for this formula less than the
" thứ lỗi " or " tha thứ ". English in a majority of situation. Besides, the Vietnamese
opt more Regret than the English.
- Xin/mong bác thông cảm. ( beg/wish -you-
sympathize) 2.3. Acknowledgement of Responsibility.
- Mong chị thứ lỗi và thông cảm cho cửa hàng. The statistic results ( Kieu,Van.(2000). Apologies
in English and Vietnamese) shows that The Vietnamese
( beg - you - forgive - and - sympathize - for shop
were prone to opt or more Responsibility than the English
)
in almost all of the situations and significantly in
- Em rất mong thầy thông cảm và tha thứ cho em. powerless an equal power unfamiliar settings.
( I - very - wish - teacher - sympathize - and - - I am sorry but the watch has not been repaired
forgive - me) yet.
The difference in expressing apology between ( Rất tiếc là chị vẫn chưa sửa xong chiếc đồng hồ
English and Vietnamese found in terms of the use of đó cho em)
Requesting Forgiveness. Rarely do the English employ the
The difference expressed clearly through the age
subformula for their apologies, which is consistent with the
of Speaker and Hearer. The age of the Hearer relative to
finding in Trosborg (1995) that " request for forgiveness
the Speaker relates to the use of Responsibility in
was not used at all". On the contrary, the Vietnamese
Vietnamese. The Vietnamese subjects are likely to exploit
afford Forgiveness in all situations with the highest
much fewer expressions of Responsibility when the
proportion.
offended party at lower age than at greater age in all the
In English, "excuse", "forgive" and " pardon" can setting. On the contrary, the difference of age in expressing
be used in polite expressions to lessen the force of what the apology in English is not significant.
Speaker says or used in mild apologies ( Oxford Advanced
2.4. Explanation or Account.
Learner's Dictionary, 1990). For example:
It is interestingly noticeable that the Vietnamese
- Excuse me for being late.
provide more Explanation than English in all the settings.
- I'll never forgive her for such an insulting The level of Explanation in the Vietnamese is
behaviour. appropriately twice as high as that in the English.

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Hanh Journal of Humanities and Education Development (JHED)
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V. CONCLUSION
As we know, apologizing is normal in our daily
life. It plays an important role in communication. It is not
easy for learners of English to express apology
appropriately. From the contrastive analysis aspects, we
hope that it will help students know something to improve
their knowledge of expressing apology. Besides, we also
hope that this paper can provide useful ideas and
knowledge to teachers to apply this field in language
teaching.
To sum up, due to the limitation of materials and
knowledge, our paper remains some weaknesses, however,
we do hope readers can benefit some valuable points
which are taken into consideration in this paper.

REFERENCES
[1] Austin, J. L (1962). How to do things with words. New
York: Oxford University Press.

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