Know your English
“Mr. A. Shankar, Kallai Road, Kozhikode, wants to know the contexts in which the following words are used: (a) excuse (b) forgive (c) pardon.”
“Please excuse me for losing my temper.
The sentence means that the person concerned is sorry for losing his temper and wants to apologise for it.
He always has a ready excuse for not doing his homework.
Here ‘excuse’ means ‘some reason, whether true or untrue, given when asking to be forgiven for absence, bad behaviour, etc.’ ‘Excuse’ also means ‘reason, justification.’
She always has an excuse for entertaining people. It is either her birthday or her husband’s salary day or her mother’s recovery from a bad cold!
Please make my excuses to her for not attending her party.
Here ‘to make one’s excuses’ means ‘to explain why someone is not doing something or for absence.’ ‘By way of excuse’ or ‘in excuse’ is used when you want to justify your action.
I am sorry I did not attend the meeting. I can only say by way of excuse that I was unwell on that day.
‘To excuse oneself for something’ means ‘to set someone free from a duty, requirement, punishment, etc.’ In this sense, it is used in the passive.
He was excused from attending classes. She may be excused from PT classes.
‘Excuse me’ is used ‘as an apology when one interrupts, disagrees, disapproves or has to behave impolitely.’
Excuse me, can you tell me the way to the station?
‘Excuse me,’ he said, ‘as he pushed his way through the crowd.’
Excuse my interruption.
He stepped on my foot and said, ‘Excuse me.’
When you did not hear what someone had said and would like him to repeat it, you say, ‘Excuse me?’ This is used more in American English than in British English. In British English, in such contexts, you say ‘Pardon?’ or ‘I beg your pardon.’ You also say ‘Sorry?’ These are polite ways of asking another person to repeat what he had said. ‘Pardon’ also means ‘an action of a court or rules forgiving a person for an illegal act and giving freedom from punishment’. ‘Pardon’ in this sense is a formal word. ‘Forgive’ also means ‘to pardon.’ When you forgive someone, you do not want to punish him; also you have no resentment against him. In ‘forgive’ there is an element of compassion. ‘Pardon,’ ‘excuse’ and ‘forgive’ are also used to convey one’s apologies for causing some inconvenience to another.
I beg your pardon.
Excuse my interruption.
Forgive my interruption.”
“Ms. Meera Chatterjee, Calcutta, wants to know the meaning of ‘She danced like crazy.’”
“‘Like crazy’, ‘like mad’ are idioms which mean ‘to an extreme degree,’ ‘very intensely.’ ‘She danced like crazy’ means that she danced with great enthusiasm.
She talks like crazy.
She spoke like mad.
These are used in informal contexts. ‘She laughed like crazy’ means she laughed and laughed and laughed as if she were mad!”
Published in The Hindu on April 30, 1991.