失礼します

When to use it

Literally ‘I am about to be rude’. Say it before crossing into someone’s space or out of it: knocking and entering an office or classroom, passing in front of someone, reaching across a table, cutting into a conversation, ending a phone call, leaving a room or a meeting.

Two tenses. 失礼します looks ahead (I am about to enter / leave / interrupt). 失礼しました looks back: said while leaving the boss’s office after the meeting, after hanging up, or as a light ‘sorry about that’ when you misspoke or knocked a chair. 失礼ですが、お名前は？ prefaces a personal question. As an adjective, 失礼（な）means rude: 失礼な人, 失礼なこと. Leaving work before the others has its own phrase, お先に失礼します.

Examples

• 失礼します。田中です。今、お時間よろしいですか。（しつれい します。たなか です。いま、おじかん よろしい です か）— Excuse me, it’s Tanaka. Do you have a moment?
• では、失礼します。（では、しつれい します）— Well then, goodbye. (ending a call or a visit)
• 遅くなって失礼しました。（おそく なって しつれい しました）— Sorry for being late.

Traps for Spanish, English and French speakers

• Spanish ‘con permiso’ covers entering a room and passing in front of someone, so Spanish speakers use 失礼します correctly at the door. But ‘con permiso’ is not said when leaving a meeting or hanging up, so learners fall back on さようなら there. 失礼します closes a call and ends a visit; さようなら sounds final.
• English speakers read 失礼します as ‘excuse me’ and use it to call a waiter or stop a stranger. That is すみません. 失礼します announces a crossing of someone’s space; it does not summon anyone.
• Learners say 失礼します while backing out of the boss’s office after a meeting, when the intrusion is already over. That is 失礼しました. Entering: 失礼します. Leaving after being received: 失礼しました. Leaving early on your own initiative: 失礼します.
• French ‘je vous prie de m’excuser’ and Spanish ‘le pido disculpas’ are heavy apologies. 失礼しました is light and routine, said several times a day; a real mistake calls for 申し訳ありません.