Whats the difference in English between Sympathy and Empathy

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hi everybody welcome back to ask alicia

the weekly series where you ask me

questions and i answer them maybe let’s

get to your first question this week

first question this week comes from

tasnim hi tasneem taz name says what are

the differences between to show and to

display nice question okay to show and

to display let’s start with to show we

use to show when we want to give visual

information to someone else so for

example you have something on your phone

and you want to share it with someone

else you can say hey let me show this to

you it’s on my phone or when you want to

give someone physical information on a

piece of paper you could say let me show

you this information so the idea with

show is that you’re giving someone

visual information you’re providing them

with something

on a piece of paper or on your phone

whatever you want to share that with

them we use show to express that

to display however refers in most cases

to putting something for example on a

sign or on a billboard or on some other

kind of like announcement board where

people can look at it but there’s not

one person going around showing each

person the information right to display

something means simply to put something

out for people to look at for example

you probably see lots of mannequins so

those bodies of people in front of store

windows that are wearing the clothes on

sale in the store we could say the

clothes are on display or the store is

displaying their clothes in the window

so we would not say show in that case

rather the clothes are being displayed

so it’s not that there’s a sales person

that’s there in front of the store

saying look at this or look at that

maybe when you go inside the store the

salesperson will show you some clothes

yes but that’s a key difference here

between show and display when someone is

giving you something to look at and says

what do you think you know that kind of

thing we can understand that as them

showing us something display just refers

to something being available for you to

look at to read to check whatever so i

hope that this helps you understand the

differences between show and display

thanks very much for an interesting

question okay let’s go to our next

question next question comes from

zakaria hi zakaria zakaria says hey

alicia i’m from morocco i enjoy

following your channel i want to know

the difference between sympathy and

empathy thank you sure great question

sympathy and empathy very very closely

related

sympathy means that you

and another person have had similar

experiences and you understand their

experience so for example let’s imagine

you have had the experience of losing a

loved one like a loved one someone you

care about has passed away

and your friend recently also lost a

loved one someone that they care about

you can say that you experience sympathy

you have had the same experience and so

you understand each other’s emotions a

little bit we call that sympathy

empathy on the other hand is when one

person has had an experience but another

person has not had that experience

regardless you can at least imagine the

things that the other people are going

through so for example if i maybe lost

my job or something like that something

negative happened to me and my friend

has not had that experience but they

want to try to comfort me we could

describe that feeling as empathy so

although they cannot understand what i’m

experiencing they’re at least trying to

be supportive or they’re trying to show

that they want to comfort me or help in

some way so they’re trying to understand

that experience that i’m having and

trying to be supportive that is empathy

so that’s the difference here when two

people or more have the same shared

experience or similar experience it’s

sympathy we refer to that as sympathy

when one person has an experience and

the other person does not have that

experience but they try to understand

one another that’s empathy so for

example if someone passes away you might

write a message that says you have my

sympathies or with empathy we might use

it in a verb form a little bit more

often than as a noun so you might see

something like oh my gosh that sounds

like a terrible experience i haven’t had

that experience but i can at least try

to empathize with you so that means i

can try to understand what you’re going

through so i hope that this helps you

understand the differences between

sympathy and empathy thanks very much

for the question okay let’s move on to

your next question next question comes

from monica hi monica monica says hi

alicia amend versus adjust what is the

difference very nice question amend

versus adjust there’s a very simple and

easy way to understand the difference

here amend means to add something on to

something that already existed like a

contract so if you have a contract in

this example and you decide later ah i

need to add something to this contract

you describe that with amend for example

i amended my contract or we amended the

agreement or let’s amend our meeting

notes so when you want to add something

in an official way you use the verb

amend to do that to amend something

means to add something after the fact

usually in an official way you might

also hear this verb used when you’re

talking about fixing relationships with

someone like you might hear the

expression to make amends with someone

that means you fix a relationship with

someone after you have a fight or a

disagreement so you might hear it in

this way too to make amends is usually

the expression it’s used in okay now

let’s compare this verb use of amend to

adjust to adjust something means to make

a change to something so again just as

with the agreement or the contract we

talked about before if you finish the

agreement or you finish the contract and

later you realize oh we need to make a

change you can say i need to adjust or i

adjusted my contract this means you did

not add something new maybe you changed

some words or you made a slightly

different agreement you can use adjust

to talk about that again we tend to use

adjust in a little bit more formal or

polite situations so a contract or

agreement discussion would be a perfect

situation for this so that is the key

difference amend means to add something

new to something that you already had

and to adjust means to make a change to

something that you already have so i

hope this helps you thanks for the

question okay let’s move on to your next

question next question comes from

johannes from armenia hello johannes

johannes says hi alicia what’s the

difference between figure out and find

out

okay figure out versus find out let’s

talk about figure out first to figure

out means to discover something or to

solve something like a puzzle or maybe a

crime or some kind of difficult

situation you figured out a secret maybe

so a good example of this is like a

crime or a police tv show where they

have to solve a mystery right so they do

lots of research they talk to people

they do interviews and maybe at the end

of the show they figure out

the person who did it they find the

criminal so to figure something out

refers to doing research and working

really hard to discover something new

to find out on the other hand generally

doesn’t have this feeling of solving a

puzzle

yes you can use it when you’re referring

to doing lots of work or doing lots of

research about something for example a

kid might say my parents found out i

left the house last night i’m in such

big trouble so found out is the past

tense of find out it also means discover

but it doesn’t have that feeling of

doing lots of research or doing lots of

work or trying to solve something for a

long time it could be just that a person

realized something in a moment or it

could be that just over a few

interactions they realized something on

their own it doesn’t have that same

feeling of trying to solve a situation

as figure out so maybe that’s kind of a

good guide like you can use figure out

when you want to emphasize really trying

to solve something like a puzzle or a

mystery and find out is kind of more

like realizing something quickly in a

moment or just because somebody maybe

told a lie or something like that so i

hope that this helps you understand the

differences between figure out and find

out thanks very much for the question

okay let’s move on to your next question

next question comes from andres leyva

hello andres andre says hi alicia

greetings from mexico city i have heard

in songs phrases like the most loneliest

day and bestest person is this correct

also is this a common thing to use in

english thanks great question yeah these

are grammatically incorrect yes but we

love to use these kinds of expressions

because it sounds sort of cute for

example when you said like the most

bestest person when we use these

grammatically incorrect statements it

sounds sort of cute like a little kid

that’s still trying to study english or

they’re still learning the correct way

to use english when we use these

grammatically incorrect forms on purpose

we do it to seem a little bit more

childlike a little more fun to show that

we have a close and happy and fun

relationship with the other person when

you use something like the most

loneliest day it also has that feeling

of kind of cute but in this case because

it’s sad they might be trying to give a

sense of innocence perhaps i’m not

exactly sure what the context was for

this quote but that could be one of the

reasons that they chose to use this

grammatically incorrect pattern

if you want to use this you totally can

but it is kind of used in some set

phrases like the most bestest is a great

example of this when you really want to

emphasize that something is really great

or maybe not so great i suppose you can

intentionally use incorrect grammar so

in those cases that means you use most

plus a long adjective plus s like the

most beautifulest for example it sounds

really silly and it’s grammatically

correct but someone might use that as a

way to emphasize something and to show

that they’re kind of casual and

childlike so i hope that this answers

your question thanks for an interesting

one okay that is everything that i have

for this week thank you as always for

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