■ sorry

c1) 后面的不定式动词，如果是表示被动的感觉，则其内容是一个不利的客观事实，自己对这个事实感到难过，但对此并无责任。

• I'm sorry to hear about your mother's death.惊悉令堂去世，深为痛惜。
• I was sorry to see him looking so ill.看见他病成这个样子，我心里很不好受。

c2) 后面的不定式动词，如果是表示某一行为，则相当于 to be sorry for + 动名词，表示当前马上要做某件不得已会使对方不快的事，因而需要表示歉意。

• I'm sorry to inform you that there has been an accident.很遗憾通知您，出了事故。
• I'm sorry to disturb you.要打扰您一下，很对不起。
• I'm sorry to ask this question again.对不起，这个问题我还要再问。

如果要对自己已经做了（不是说了之后才做）的某件事表示歉意，要用完成式不定式：to be sorry to have + pp。

• I'm sorry to have bothered you.刚才打扰了您，很对不起。

c3) 以上两种情况，to be 的动词时态都是一般现在或一般过去时，后面的 inf. 都是主语所正在进行、已经做了或是马上要做的。但是如果 to be 的时态转变为虚拟式的 should be，成为 should be sorry to inf.，意义就同 (I am) sorry to inf. 大不相同，从肯定变为否定。I am sorry to inf. (inf. 是个有意识的行动) 是“我虽然遗憾，但仍然要做这件事”，I am sorry to inf. (inf. 是个被动的感知如 hear 之类)是“我感知到这件事时，感到很遗憾”。但是 I should be sorry to inf. (inf. 是个有意识的行动)则是“我不愿意采取这样的行动”，I should be sorry to inf. （inf. 是个被动的感知如 hear 之类）是“我不愿意有这样的感知（例如我不愿意听到）”。

• I should be sorry to think our friend mercenary. (Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice, Chapter twenty-seven)我可不愿意把我们的朋友看作是一个唯利是图的人啊。
• I should be sorry to think so. I can't think so. (Letters of James Smetham, p.56)我可不愿意这样想。我不能够这样想。
• I should be sorry to say anything that should stain, even with the most remote suspicion of ingratitude, that unadulterated mind. (Charlotte Smith, The Old Manor House, Part 1, Chapter V)对于这个纯洁无瑕的心灵，我不忍心说任何可能玷污它的话，哪怕只有那么一丁点以怨报德的痕迹。
• For my part, I should be sorry to think that there was nothing between Anthony and Cleopatra but an economic situation... (Somerset Maugham, The Moon and Sixpence, Chapter I)拿我来说，要我认为安东尼和克莉奥佩特拉的关系只不过是经济上的问题，那我是很不服气的…

19 世纪英国作家 Frederick William Robinson 的小说 Women Are Strange (p.72) 中，一个被出走的母亲抛弃多年的女儿与母亲相会时，问母亲：Have they been miserable years to you, mother? 母亲就反问：Can you expect to hear they were happy ones? 此时女儿就说：I should be sorry to hear it; glad to be told for your sake, for your soul's sake, that they have all been years of sorrow and repentance since you left me and my father. 这里的 I should be sorry to hear it 就是“我不愿意听到你这样说”。

但是 I should be sorry to say... 也可以表示“要说的内容我是肯定的，只是不想说出口（以便给对方留有余地）”。

• I should be sorry to say I have reason to think so now. (Letter of James Patterson to John Haywood, Aug. 18, 1795)我这样想，现在是有理由的，但我倒不一定非说出来不可。