British people have a tendency to apologise for everything they do. If we bump into someone we say, ‘sorry’ even if it is not our fault. We say ‘sorry’ when we sneeze and ‘sorry’ when we are late and start conversations with, ‘sorry to bother you!’  We can even be heard to say, ‘sorry for the rain’! One English friend noted that French people are less likely to take responsibility when things go wrong or to accept that people fail sometimes – so are far less likely to say, ‘sorry’.