Skip to main content

Sympathy (to sympathize) vs. Empathy (to empathize)


Quite a lot of people feel confused in using empathy and sympathy. Although it might be impossible to draw a clear cut demarcation line between the two words, here’s the difference between the most commonly used meanings of these two terms is:


Sympathy is feeling compassion, sorrow, or pity for the hardships that another person encounters.


Empathy is putting yourself in the shoes of another, which is why actors often talk about it. 
(image source: Photo by Kevin Laminto on Unsplash)


   1.   When I saw my friend having to greet her ailing mom at the nursing home through the window since the pandemic, I found myself deeply saddened and ___________________ with her in her sorrow.



   
   2.   As an actor, he had to learn about the importance of feeling ___________________ with the individual's situation.



   
   3.   In an argument about police brutality today, Tony said “All lives matter.” That remark caused huge furor and agitation in the debate, and one of his colleagues said “Tony, don’t you have _______________ for the black guy who painfully begged for his life while all those insane officers were taking his life?”





   4.   My friend Anthony is a palm reader who always tells me that his psychic ability of _________________is often misunderstood.



   
   5.   Roger has been such a devoted volunteer M.D. at our local hospice for the terminally ill. When I expressed my admiration to him, he said his own challenges, limitations, and injuries had helped support that ________________ and inclusiveness.



   6.   Please accept my sincere _________________ in the loss of your beloved Grandpa. He must be watching over you in Heaven.



   
  v 7.   The moment you break the news of your cousin’s passing, Jess will cry. She always __________________ with her friends in their grief.



   
   8.   I’m sick and tired of your lack of _____________! How could you react so inappropriately all the time? Is it because you have difficulty understanding another person's emotional states?






Answer Keys

   
   1.  sympathized

   2.  empathy

   3.  sympathy

   4.  empathy

   5.  empathy

   6.  sympathy

   7.  sympathizes

   8.  empathy

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

On the Day of the New Beginning of My Home Country

  Opening the Door to My Strong Home Country by Jean Jiyoung Lee June 3 rd 2025   Let your long-lost inner light shine Wake up and stay woke from dark torpor Prayers for those in pain are yours and mine Heart-wrenching memories will stay where they were It will be all right to find yourself supine As long as you get up and go tomorrow as a warrior Pat on your back and be on cloud nine The wintry chill in the past would rather feel like warmer When upslopes batter your spirits down, just say you’ll be fine As you feel connected to your strength, curveballs are no longer a torture Now laugh out loud and give a smile so divine The moon rabbits would greet you back in your dreams tonight with rice cake from their mortar Blessing is another word for fine The bitter past was only a blessing in disguise ‘cause your new era will be a perfect restorer Raise your glass of wine Time to live your life on the solid anchor

Evolving Grammar Rules

  The Grammar Rules Are Evolving or Becoming Extinct! Are you hairsplitting grammar police based on the existing/ traditional prescriptive grammar or gravitating more towards casual/ colloquial descriptive grammar? As we are living in the era of myriads of fast-paced communication venues such as instant text messages and lots of online conversations, languages and their grammar rules are fast evolving today. English is no the exception. Let us go over some of the English grammar rules that people ignore quite often times and are normally accepted today. Even the following examples might be out of their styles or seem outdated in any time soon. One thing you need to remember is that quite a lot of academic or formal writers are still expected to follow the existing/ old school grammar rules.   1.    Prescriptive Grammar: Don’t end a sentence with a preposition. Vs. Descriptive Grammar: Yes, you can end a sentence with a prepostition.   E.g., Winston C...

Bird Word Scramble

Are you a bird watcher or stalker? 😊 Try to unscramble the popular North American birds below. Example:  prswaor: ________________,     answer: sparrow    1.    nidralca: ________________    2.    rekuty: _________________    3.    cnifh: _________________    4.    drocewpkeo: ______________    5.    mhbigrmudni:__________________    6.      boirn: _______________    7.    leacpni: ________________    8.    riooel: ________________    9.    kiehaeccd: _________________    10.                raekapte: __________________    11.             ...