what is the real meaning?

[potatoagent1]

HI
I can speak some arabic and I got surprised when i found a word in the course which is translated differently from what i knew before!
in the course they translate عفوا as you're welcome, which i have used for sorry or excuse me! maybe it's a dialect thing. Can you enlighten me why?
thanks

[TJ_Q8]

Yes, عفوا can be used as sorry, even though you will see in movies subtitles that would be translated as المعذرة or معذرةً. All can be used as "sorry" without a problem.
However, عفوا is more commonly used as well as a response to "شكرا" and hence it is translated as "you are welcome." Some people (even some of us Arabs) wonder why this word is used as a response to "thank you" in Arabic. The word means (forgiveness), so it is like an abbreviation for (please forgive me) or (excuse me), and when used as a reply to "thank you" it has a meaning of (please forgive me if I didn't do my best). In some sense it is parallel to the German (Bitte) which is used as a reply to (Danke).

[potatoagent1]

thanks.
in what countries it is more common as you're welcome?
I have been in Iraq and Saudi arabia and it's used for sorry there.

[TJ_Q8]

Well, as I said, it is used as sorry as well or excuse me. To what I know, everyone uses it as a reply to Shukran as well; Not in any specific spot in the Arab world. Sometimes we even use it as a starter for a conversation, specially when we want to ask something (as such it means sorry for interrupting): عفواً، هل محمد هنا؟ (pardon, is Muhammed here?).