JJapanese

すみません and ごめんなさい

I know this is a really basic question and I should probably already know this after 5 months of learning but I’m not very good at understanding basic stuff so can someone dumb down the difference between すみません and ごめんなさい

I think one of them can be used as “excuse me” or something, I can’t quite remember and Google give me a ton of over complicated answers that throw me off and confuse me more.

2 comments

  2. すみません is often translated as “excuse me” but could more closely be translated along the lines of “I have committed a rudeness”.

    ごめんなさい is translated as “sorry” but it’s usually used for someone in your “in” group–someone you’re close to. So for most situations you’ll probably be using すみません.

    Of course if you REALLY screwed up you wanna break out the 申し訳ありません

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