1

Suppose your friend invites you to dinner. He prepares a dish that he knows is too spicy for you, but you're a good sport and try it anyway; it actually turns out to be quite tasty. He says 委屈你了.

"I have wronged you" and "Sorry to inconvenience you" both sound too dramatic in English. What would be a colloquially appropriate translation here?

2
  • Sorry to let you feel wronged. ?
    – 高鵬翔
    Jun 3, 2020 at 2:20
  • 委屈你了 does not sound familiar to me in this context.
    – zyy
    Jun 8, 2020 at 4:24

6 Answers 6

3

I'm not sure if this is overly BrE but a common turn of phrase is:

sorry to put you out

or

sorry to have put you out

That would be a fairly close equivalent of 委屈你了.

1
  • A bit odd in American English, but perhaps.
    – K Man
    Jun 2, 2020 at 18:57
1

May be “Thank you for your support and understanding”?

1
  • A little too formal, at least for American English.
    – K Man
    Jun 2, 2020 at 18:58
1

I think even the dish is tasty, but it is also very spicy, so your face are red and damp with sweat, we can imagine the scene. So I think your friend was just joking and wanted to comfort you ^_^

0

How about "thanks for taking one" (literally thanks you for taking a bite, but it also imply: "take one for the team" )

"Take one for the team"

(idiomatic, informal) To accept some chore or hardship for the sake of one's friends or colleagues.

1
  • In this case, he didn't really cause me any hardship at all. Even though I don't like spicy food, I happened to like that one dish. That's why he said 委屈你了in a half-serious, half-joking tone. I wouldn't say I took one for the team though, since there were only two of us and I didn't exactly do him any favors by eating it.
    – K Man
    Jun 2, 2020 at 20:55
0

Maybe: sorry to make you go through this?

"nurse a grievance" is probably a right phrase to interpret here.

0

Nothing wrong with "Sorry about that...(whatever)". It's vague enough yet understandable.

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