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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