"to apologise to someone for something" or "to apologise to someone about something" or "to apologise to someone over something"

Question

"Downing Street apologises to Queen over lockdown parties."

The sentence is from the BBC.

As far as I know, the structure should be "to apologise to someone about something" or "to apologise to someone for doing something."

However, BBC uses it this way and a dictionary (Longman) gives a sample sentence this way:"We apologize to passengers for the delay."

It seems that all these 3 prepositions (over, to, for) are interchangeable. However, the BBC usage "apologise to someone over something" does not seem all that common.

I am confused and want to ask: Can all of these prepositions (for, about, over), and particularly the "over" be used with "to apologise" when referring to the issue for which apology is made.?

Answer 1

Using over is actually quite common when apologising.

For example:

“I want to apologise over the way I have behaved”.

“I would like to offer an apology over the way I have acted”

For and Over are commonly used in sentences when apologising, however about not so much.