scusarsi
Parola del giorno | Word of the day
Today's Parola del Giorno is the verb scusarsi, which means to apologize or to say sorry.
The past participle is scusato.
As a reflexive verb, essere is used in compound tenses.
Remember that past participles agree in gender and number with the subject when essere is helping verb. With this useful verb, take note of how prepositions follow it are used:
to apologize to someone | scusarsi con qualcuno
Mi sono scusato con Paolo perché non mi sono comportato bene alla sua festa.
I apologized to Paolo beacuse I was rude at the party.
to apologize for something | scusarsi di, scusarsi per
Mi sono scusato con la professoressa dei miei compiti orribili.
Mi sono scusato con la professoressa per i miei compiti orribili.
I apologized to the teacher for my horrible homework.
to apologize for doing something | scusarsi di aver fatto, scusarsi per aver fatto
Mamma, mi scuso di non aver sistemato la mia stanza da letto.
Mamma, mi scuso per non aver sistemato la mia stanza da letto.
Mom, I apologize for not tidying up my bedroom.
Tourists in Italy probably use Scusarsi most often in the imperative - when pushing onto a crowded bus, for instance. And then, there is often confusion about the 2nd person informal and format usage with verbs that end in 'are' like this: Scusi is 2nd person formal, while Scusa is 2nd person informal!