2013年4月2日 · 对 here means to face or to confront. So combining the two, you have 对不起, which literally means 'not having the capacity to face or confront'. The verb usage of 对不起 can also be explained in a similar fashion, which can be translated into 'to wrong' or 'to let down'. 对得起 would be a perfect antonym for the verb definition.

2014年2月22日 · I may be wrong, but I always equated 对不住 with 辜负. As some of the above posters have said, 对不起 is a little bit formal, and, at least in my experience, not used too often. 不好意思 is what you generally hear. When I was living in mainland China, it seemed rare to hear 对不起, especially among friends.

Both 不好意思 and 对不起 can be used for this kind of situation. It is basically a polite phrase for getting someone's attention. However, 不好意思 is more preferable than 对不起 because the former indicates "it is an embarrassment" in your part.

对不起 is like "sorry",when you actually do something wrong. For example,you can say"对不起 ...

对不起 in most cases is only used to offer apology or excuse for some fault, failure, or injury. It's a verb, but can be translated either to an adjective, "sorry", or verb, "apologize". The adjective version is grammatically wrong in this sentence, so we can consider the verb version. However, saying "I apologize to you" still sounds strange.

2016年8月26日 · I have seen examples that show 对不起 as duìbùqǐ and duìbuqǐ in pinyin. For instance: 对不起，我踩到你的脚了。 duìbùqǐ, wǒ cǎi dào nǐ de jiǎole. 对不起，我听不懂。 duìbuqǐ, wǒ tīng bù dǒng. Similarly, I have also seen the same issue with 没关系 …

2018年1月11日 · I was watching a Taiwanese's drama. In the beginning of the first scene the young women was laughing and saying 对不起嘛. I know that 对不起 mean sorry. I heard of 嘛 being used in 在干嘛. I am learning mandarin and I'm just wondering if it is only used in Taiwanese dialect. If not， does the meaning change？

2017年6月19日 · 对不起 is not wrong. According to the scenario, it's fine if you intent to use it for the meaning of I'm sorry (for bothering or disturbing). You can also use 不好意思 or 打扰一下 instead, if you won't bother the random people much.

2018年12月16日 · 对不起，今天我没空帮你 can be considered as the shorthand of 对不起，今天我没（有）【空闲时间】帮你, meaning I can't find any (free) timeslot to help you today. It's a casual talk, whereas its full version is a formal one. 空闲: free time; spare time; vacancy; etc.

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