What's the difference between 对不起, 对不住and 不好意思

对不起(*): Sorry/Excuse me. 对不住: Ditto (colloquial). I'd assume it is mainly used by northern Chinese. 不好意思(*): Excuse me (colloquial). ChineseLanguageStackExchangeisaquestionandanswersiteforstudents,teachers,andlinguistswantingtodiscussthefinerpointsoftheChineselanguage.Itonlytakesaminutetosignup. Signuptojointhiscommunity Anybodycanaskaquestion Anybodycananswer Thebestanswersarevotedupandrisetothetop Home Public Questions Tags Users Unanswered Teams StackOverflowforTeams –Startcollaboratingandsharingorganizationalknowledge. CreateafreeTeam WhyTeams? Teams CreatefreeTeam Teams Q&Aforwork Connectandshareknowledgewithinasinglelocationthatisstructuredandeasytosearch. Learnmore What'sthedifferencebetween对不起,对不住and不好意思 AskQuestion Asked 8years,5monthsago Modified 7years,10monthsago Viewed 6ktimes 14 1 WhenIwasinChina,Iheardpeopleusing不好意思toapologizecasually. Ialsoheardtheexpression对不住inTVseriesandmovies.Isthereanydifferences? usagevocabularyphrase Share Improvethisquestion Follow editedFeb22,2014at3:00 hippietrail 3,91933goldbadges2727silverbadges5151bronzebadges askedFeb21,2014at13:30 OOEngineerOOEngineer 36933silverbadges77bronzebadges 3 IraisegoosebumpswhenIhear不好意思isusedintheplaceofexcuseme. – GeorgeChen Sep11,2014at17:26 不好意思isaphrasefromthesouth.Whenusedatthebeginning,itmeans"thisisembarassing."Thentheywilltellyousomethinglikeit'stoolatetoorderbreakfast. – GeorgeChen Sep11,2014at17:39 Thenagain,thesouthismorecivilized. – GeorgeChen Sep11,2014at18:35 Addacomment  |  6Answers 6 Sortedby: Resettodefault Highestscore(default) Datemodified(newestfirst) Datecreated(oldestfirst) 5 对不起(*):Sorry/Excuseme 对不住:Ditto(colloquial).I'dassumeitismainlyusedbynorthernChinese 不好意思(*):Excuseme(colloquial) *Othermeaningsexistindifferentcontexts,e.g.对不起=letsomebodydown,不好意思=beembarrassed,etc. Share Improvethisanswer Follow answeredFeb21,2014at20:13 agripropagriprop 16422bronzebadges 3 1 对不住istheformusedinCantonese,soobviouslynotnothernchinese!(InCantonesedonotuse对不起) – EarthEngine Mar4,2014at10:42 @EarthEngineIdidn'tknowthat,butIassumewearetalkingaboutmandarinhere – agriprop Mar4,2014at10:55 3 InCantoneseuse"對唔住",itsverycloseto對不住.Butstill,weuse對不住inmandarin.Inmyopinion,對不住hasalittlemorethoughtaboutfailingsomebody'sexpectation. – Yafufu Mar18,2014at10:28 Addacomment  |  4 Iamnotalinguist,soIwilljustspeakmymind.There'snottoomuchdifferencebetween对不起and不好意思.But对不住ismoreformal,itoftenmeansdoesnotliveuptosomeone'sexpectations. Share Improvethisanswer Follow answeredMar13,2014at13:51 AveMaleficumAveMaleficum 1,03366silverbadges1414bronzebadges Addacomment  |  2 Imaybewrong,butIalwaysequated对不住with辜负.Assomeoftheabovepostershavesaid,对不起isalittlebitformal,and,atleastinmyexperience,notusedtoooften.不好意思iswhatyougenerallyhear.WhenIwaslivinginmainlandChina,itseemedraretohear对不起,especiallyamongfriends.MyChinesefriendsoftenthoughtitwasstrangewhenIwouldsaysorrytothem,aswewerefriendsandthatformalityseemedtoputanunnecessarydistancebetweenus.Itseemedtobethesamefor谢谢. Share Improvethisanswer Follow answeredFeb23,2014at23:20 SherMMSherMM 17133bronzebadges Addacomment  |  2 I'lldrawsomecomparisonswithJapanese. 不好意思issimilartoSumimasen（すみません),whichmeansexcuseme/sorry,dependingoncontext.It'samorelighterversionof对不起. 对不起ismoresimilartoGomenasai,whichisverydeep,likeifyoudidsomethingwrongthatyoureallyregretandwishyoucanundothemistake. Examples: 不好意思,我们的面了卖完了。

(Sorry,butournoodlesaresoldout.)(Moreformalinthissentence) 对不起,我们的面了卖完了。

(Sorry,butournoodlesaresoldout.)(Moreinformalbutusable.) 对不起,我错了.(I'msorry,it'smyfault.) Share Improvethisanswer Follow answeredFeb27,2014at4:04 user3992user3992 51144silverbadges1111bronzebadges 2 YourcomparisontoJapaneseisveryinteresting.Butyouranswerismissingthemeaningof对不住.Reallygoodanswernevertheless. – OOEngineer Feb27,2014at15:31 对不住ismorenorthernversionof对不起.Sotheusageisthesame,justreplace对不起with对不住.Onasidenote,对不住isnotusedasaninterjectionmeaningI'msorryinHokkien.歹勢(phái-sè)or失禮(sit-lé)instead.歹勢iscommonlyusedwhenIspeakHokkientootherpeople. – user3992 Feb27,2014at15:58 Addacomment  |  0 对不起Moreformal，对不住and不好意思colloquial。

不好意思isapolysemyword,meansshy Share Improvethisanswer Follow answeredFeb21,2014at17:00 dubuyunjiedubuyunjie 122bronzebadges Addacomment  |  0 对不起:Literallymeans"can'tmakeitright".Carriestheconnotationofbeinginthewrong. 不好意思:Meanssomethinglike,"thatwasbad".Describestheactionmorethanthecharacteroftheonesayingit. Share Improvethisanswer Follow answeredSep11,2014at16:47 ChrisChris 20311silverbadge77bronzebadges Addacomment  |  YourAnswer ThanksforcontributingananswertoChineseLanguageStackExchange!Pleasebesuretoanswerthequestion.Providedetailsandshareyourresearch!Butavoid…Askingforhelp,clarification,orrespondingtootheranswers.Makingstatementsbasedonopinion;backthemupwithreferencesorpersonalexperience.Tolearnmore,seeourtipsonwritinggreatanswers. Draftsaved Draftdiscarded Signuporlogin SignupusingGoogle SignupusingFacebook SignupusingEmailandPassword Submit Postasaguest Name Email Required,butnevershown PostYourAnswer Discard Byclicking“PostYourAnswer”,youagreetoourtermsofservice,privacypolicyandcookiepolicy Nottheansweryou'relookingfor?Browseotherquestionstaggedusagevocabularyphraseoraskyourownquestion. FeaturedonMeta AnnouncingtheStacksEditorBetarelease! Linked -2 What'sthedifferentbetween不好意思and对不起？ 9 Whatisthedifferencebetween对不起,请问,不好意思,and抱歉toexpress"excuseme"or"sorry"? Related 6 Whatisthemeaningandproperusageof凭什么？ 12 What'saprecisedefinitionof人家 2 Differencebetween人和and仁和 1 Differencebetween趁着and就 6 Whatisthedifferencebetween怎么and怎么样？ 4 Thedifferencebetween:日vs号 4 Whatisthedifferencebetween翼and翅膀? 2 Isthereadifferencebetween回转and掉头? 4 Differencebetween"believe"认为and相信? 2 该讲不该讲vs.当讲不当讲 HotNetworkQuestions WhichTerryPratchettbookstartswith"Zoomin"? WhydoesAllahforceustoobeyhim? Securityreductionseemstowronglyshowthatanon-PRFisaPRF Busfailedtopickusup;musttheoperatorrefundourtaxifare? IsitpossibleonTGVINOUItobookasecondlegofatickettoextendmyjourneyonthetrain? Forgottopassthroughcustoms WhataregoodparticledynamicsODEsforanintroductoryscientificcomputingcourse? Alternativestorimtape WasthereaColdWareraRussiansafehavencityforpoliticiansandscientists? HowcanIgetanotheraligntothisequation? Dowhycausalinferenceestimatesequalfromtwodifferentmodels-why? SuperMario64RNG Accessingprotectedmethodofanonymousobjectvsbyanamedreference Letterstonumberstoletters(poorly) Howdomapdesignerssubconsciouslyleadplayers? Setswithbothadditiveandmultiplicativegaps BasedonTehillim92,wouldplayingנֶבֶלnotviolateShabbat? WhyistheUSresidentialmodeluntouchableandunquestionable? Getrowvaluesascolumnvalues Wiringa240Vsinglephasecabletotwo110Voutlets(120degapart) Grepexcludinglinethatendsin0,butnot10,100etc Howtopitchpuptenttoavoidpuddles Shortstoryaboutthecreationofaspellthatcreatesacopyofaspecificwoman Howtohelpmyplayerstrackgoldinmultiplecurrencies? morehotquestions Questionfeed SubscribetoRSS Questionfeed TosubscribetothisRSSfeed,copyandpastethisURLintoyourRSSreader. Yourprivacy Byclicking“Acceptallcookies”,youagreeStackExchangecanstorecookiesonyourdeviceanddiscloseinformationinaccordancewithourCookiePolicy. Acceptallcookies Customizesettings