Sorry Babbel, but British people say sorry more than nine times a day

Language learning app’s research seems on low side judging by my two-day experiment to record how often I say sorry

British people say “sorry” on average nine times a day, according to research by Babbel, a German language learning app – the upstart Duolingo. Foreigners were baffled that it was so often, and I was baffled that it was so infrequent.

I said it that many times just going once round Tesco Metro (I can’t even process how many times I’d be sorry in the mega-store):

Sorry (you are between me and a basket, you ought to have foreseen this, there is only one basket-station. Now that you haven’t, all we can do is mourn);

Sorry (I slightly trod on you);

Sorry (you’re clearly one of those people who still observes a one-way system, post-Covid, and even though I plainly disagree with this, otherwise I’d also do it, I sympathise with your vexation);

Sorry (you’re going way too fast and that’s why we nearly collided, so really you should be sorry, except you seem a bit high, so I am sorry for your predicament);

Sorry (we both reached for the same thing, yet the stakes are low, there are 17 more);

Sorry (I joined the queue in the wrong place);

Sorry (you joined the queue in the wrong place);

Sorry (shop assistant, you are very slow to approve my age-sensitive purchase, considering you could ID me from space);

Sorry (that my Clubcard isn’t scanning, person behind me, even though I 100% guarantee that yours isn’t going to scan either).