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Someone has recognised that their behaviour toward me was unacceptable.

What can I say that acknowledge the have apologised without thanking them for it?

I'm stuck with :

"Thanks, I appreciate your apology...."

Clarification:

A number of people have asked why I didn't want to thank them.

I'd been talking to the person over several messages to get to the bottom of their issue. Afterwards, they apologise for the number of messages, not for what we had been discussing.

"I'm sorry for all those messages, please accept my apologies"

The apology was out of character and a step forward in the relationship but was for the number of messages, not for what we were discussing.

So the response: "Thanks, I appreciate the apology.." felt wrong.

I was concerned that by thanking them, they would think the issue was resolved, however they'd apologised for something that wasn't an issue.

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    Interesting question! Are you trying to avoid thanking them because you don't want to thank them for doing what's expected of them? While not necessary, your motivation for avoiding thanks may allow answers more specifically crafted to your situation.
    – spiral succulent
    Dec 13, 2018 at 22:34
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    Hello! We have some previous questions that may be helpful, did you see How to accept an apology, without implying there was no problem? Does that help, or do you have a different reason for avoiding "Thanks"?
    – Em C
    Dec 13, 2018 at 22:55
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    Is there a particular reason that your example sentence, minus the word "thanks", is not sufficient?
    – Upper_Case
    Dec 13, 2018 at 23:20
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    Why do you want to avoid "thanks"?
    – nilon
    Dec 15, 2018 at 14:59

2 Answers 2

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In English, it's typical to respond to an apology with "Apology accepted." followed by a change of subject. This may look like:

Apology accepted. Now let's get some pizza!

In fact, looking at Google Ngrams, "Apology accepted" is actually a lot more popular than "...appreciate your apology."

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If someone is apolozing it means he realized what wrong he did and now there is no conflicts between you both.

You could simply say,

It's alright, holding no grudge against you. You realized my side, it's enough for me.

I also don't choose to say 'thanks' but instead of thanking the person directly one could thanks or appreciate person's effort for realizing your end(how you felt when someone was misbehaving) and accepting their blunt.

If in case he/she is your close friend it's better to go on positive side like offer a walk/ride together or ask to take beverages outside, spent some time together. :)

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