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Which one to use?Intermediatesustantivosustantivo
SympathyvsEmpathy
'Sympathy' = feeling sorrow for someone from the outside; 'empathy' = feeling what another person feels.
Side-by-side comparison
Sympathy
sustantivo"Sympathy" is feeling pity or compassion for someone going through a difficult situation. You acknowledge their pain from the outside.
She sent a sympathy card to the family after learning about their loss.
I have great sympathy for people who struggle with anxiety, it must be exhausting.
The audience listened with sympathy as the speaker described the difficulties of her childhood.
Empathy
sustantivo"Empathy" is putting yourself in someone else's position and feeling what they feel, as if you were living their experience yourself. It is a deeper connection than sympathy.
A good therapist can empathize with a client's pain without becoming overwhelmed by it.
She showed remarkable empathy during the crisis, instinctively knowing what each person needed.
Reading fiction is one of the best ways to develop empathy, you see the world through other people's eyes.
Common mistake
- •The key difference: sympathy = you feel FOR them (you pity them from the outside, without necessarily having lived the same thing).
- •Empathy = you feel WITH them (you enter their emotional experience as if it were your own).
- •If someone describes losing their dog and you remember losing yours and relive that pain, that is empathy.
Trick to remember it
- •SYMpathy = "I feel sorry FOR you" (you stay outside their experience).
- •EMpathy = "I feel what you feel" (you go INSIDE their experience).
- •The prefix EM- comes from Greek "en" (within), you step into the other person's emotional state.
Quick rule
- •Sympathy = feeling sorrow or solidarity from the outside (you feel sorry for their situation).
- •Empathy = feeling what the other feels, from the inside (you enter their emotional perspective).
Did you know?
Psychologist Jean Decety demonstrated using functional MRI that when an empathic person observes someone suffering, the same brain regions associated with pain activate in the observer. Empathy is literally neurological: your brain "feels" another's pain. Sympathy, in contrast, activates regions associated with recognizing pain and motivation to help, but not the same first-person pain processing regions. The word EMPATHY was introduced into English in 1909 as a translation of the German "Einfühlung" (feeling-into), used by philosopher Theodor Lipps to describe the aesthetic experience of merging with a work of art. Only in the 20th century did it come to apply to interpersonal relationships.
Practise what you learned
Exercise 1 · Pick the right one
She sent a card expressing her _____ after his mother passed away.
Exercise 2 · Pick the right one
Because she'd been through the same thing, she had true _____ for what he was going through.
Exercise 3 · Form the word
Related word pairs
DisinterestedvsUninterested
"Disinterested" = impartial, with no personal stake; "uninterested" = bored or not interested in something.
JealousvsEnvious
"Jealous" = fear of losing something you already have; "envious" = wanting something someone else has.
AbovevsOver
"Above" is at a higher level without contact; "over" implies covering, movement, or crossing.
ActuallyvsReally
"Actually" corrects or contrasts an assumption; "really" intensifies or confirms.
Bryan López
Founder of SpeakUP Academy