Apology levels

Chinese apologies scale by severity far more explicitly than English 'sorry' does. 不好意思 is the lightest — used constantly for minor everyday friction: bumping into someone, interrupting, asking a stranger for help, arriving a couple minutes late. It functions almost like 'excuse me' as much as 'sorry.'

对不起 is a real apology for an actual fault — stepping on someone's foot rather than just brushing past them, breaking a promise, hurting someone's feelings. Using 对不起 for something trivial can feel oddly heavy, the way over-apologizing does in English. 抱歉 sits a notch more formal and is common in written apologies, customer service, and professional contexts.

For serious matters — a real mistake at work, a formal complaint, a public apology — 十分抱歉 or 非常抱歉 ('deeply/very sorry') signal genuine gravity, and 请您原谅 ('please forgive me') is reserved for asking real forgiveness. In service and business settings, an apology is usually expected to come with a concrete remedy — 我给您添麻烦了 ('I've caused you trouble') often accompanies an offer to fix the problem, not stand alone.