"Excuse" or "justified"

[Rachel Adams]

Hello.

Can I use "excused" instead of "justified"? For example, "Such behaviour cannot be excused."

I mean in the meaning of "make some excuse". For more context, "She is so rude." "Well, she will make some excuse by saying she's pregnant."

 

[Tdol]

How about because instead of by saying?

 

[Yankee]

Yes.

 

[emsr2d2]

Hello.

Can I use "excused" instead of "justified"? For example, "Such behaviour cannot be excused."

I mean in the meaning of "make some excuse". For more context, "She is so rude." "Well, she will make some excuse by saying she's pregnant."

Couldn't you come up with a better example than someone excusing their rudeness by saying they're pregnant?! ;-)

 

[tzfujimino]

May I ask a question here? The verb "excuse" is a bit tricky for me.

"Such behaviour cannot be excused."

Does the word "excused" above mean "forgiven"?

 

[emsr2d2]

Not really, no. You can excuse someone's behaviour but you might never forgive them for it.

 

[tzfujimino]

Not really, no. You can excuse someone's behaviour but you might never forgive them for it.

Umm...

May I ask what you mean by your "excuse"?

 

[emsr2d2]

Imagine you are throwing a dinner party and, at the table, in the middle of the meal, someone says something very rude. In front of all your friends round the table, you might laugh it off and say something like "Ignore him. He's drunk" but, privately, you would always remember what he said and never invite him for dinner again. You might even never speak to him again.

 

[Rachel Adams]

Couldn't you come up with a better example than someone excusing their rudeness by saying they're pregnant?! ;-)

Believe me I did my best.:-D.

 

[Rachel Adams]

You can, but the two words have different meanings.

Does "excused" in my sentence mean "forgiven"? "Such behaviour cannot be excused?" In the book "What Do You Think" (Written by Korea editorial stuff and and copy-edited by Duane Vohees) there is a text about a woman who hides the truth about her husband from her son. She doesn't tell her little son that his father is in prison. The question of the books asks "Should she tell him the truth or should she make some excuse?" Is the meaning here in this context and in my original sentence the same?

 

[Charlie Bernstein]

May I ask a question here? The verb "excuse" is a bit tricky for me.

"Such behaviour cannot be excused."

Does the word "excused" above mean "forgiven"?

Yes, in that context. It has other meanings.

 

[Charlie Bernstein]

Umm...

May I ask what you mean by your "excuse"?

Again, it has other meanings. But in Rachel's question, they would amount pretty much the same thing: to let it go, to give it a pass, to forget about it,* to overlook it, to forgive it, to ignore it.

*In the US, this is often compressed into one word pronounced fuhGEDabaddit.

 

[emsr2d2]

*In the US, this is often compressed into one word pronounced fuhGEDabaddit.

Something that non-native AmE speakers struggle with. See HERE. ;-)