GCU Forum - sympathy versus condolences

barbara_133221

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sympathy versus condolences
Apr 30^th, 2010, 6:50am

Hi Mindy/Shaun and everybody

,
Don't know if this question was asked before somewhere - so if it was, sorry.
I do not understand the differences between condolences and sympathy when creating a card.
In both cases you say "with deepest sympathy" or something similar and "please accept our condolences" or something similar. When is a card a category "condolences" and when "sympathy" ?
In Germany "condolences" and "sympathy" are the same, so checking the translations does not help me in this case to clarify things for myself. Thanks for clarifications.
Have a wonderful weekend!

barbara

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martin_138364

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Re: sympathy versus condolences
Reply #1 - Apr 30^th, 2010, 7:28am

Hi Barbara,
I will have a go at this.

Condolences could be replaced with pity or commiseration all giving the sense of loss.

Sympathy can also be replaced with pity, commiseration and condolences to give the same sense of loss. However sympathy can be used to show understanding, compassion, kindness and empathy, it can also show approval, agreement and support.

Hope that has helped you a bit, the problem with English is that it is made from so many languages including German that you get a lot of words that over lap.

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Mary__137064

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Re: sympathy versus condolences
Reply #2 - Apr 30^th, 2010, 7:43am

Hi, Barbara! What a great question. While I can completely agree with Martin, in my own little world,
when dealing with matters of death, I find 'sympathy' is more kind, perhaps because of the sound of the word. For sad situations, less final than death, like even divorce can be undone or rectified in some way,
condolences makes more sense to me, yet I am not really as comfortable with the term as I am with 'sympathy'.

Bright

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Marion_133078

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Re: sympathy versus condolences
Reply #3 - Apr 30^th, 2010, 7:47am

Barbara, I would say there is not much difference at all. If I was to be picky I would say that
With Our Condolences is more formal and would be used more if you did not know the person very well. I put cards with condolences on the front into the condolences category and those with sympathy into the sympathy category.I think it is a little overkill to have the two - but there may be a very good reason for it.

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cheryl_133782 Gold Member artist Posts: 1350	Re: sympathy versus condolences Reply #4 - Apr 30^th, 2010, 8:37am I just wish they'd fix the forum posts so that we don't get three copies of the same post....not that it is your fault Barbara. I know GCU can't fix it but surely the people who run the forum can. Cheryl
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barbara_133221

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Re: sympathy versus condolences
Reply #5 - Apr 30^th, 2010, 9:24am

Hi Cheryl, I guess that it is sort of my fault - when i posted this thread the first time, i got the message: couldn't comply, fault ......and no thread appeared when i checked the "gcu support" category .... so i copied/pasted and made a new thread, thinking that there were server problems (because i also got a notification of server problems).... and then i got the message server problem again, so... Cheesy

... i copied/pasted and posted thread number 3 Cheesy

Voilà, that's why there are 3 similar threads.....

barbara

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barbara_133221

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Re: sympathy versus condolences
Reply #6 - Apr 30^th, 2010, 9:30am

Hi Marion, Mary, Martin (did you see that Shocked

3 names starting with "M" Wink

)
Thanks for answering.
So, if i got it right: condolence cards are more formal, have the more standard bland wording ....
and sympathy cards can include more personal wordings ??
Ok, will keep that in mind when creating and putting into the right categories.
Have a wonderful creative weekend everybody

barbara

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barbara_133221 Gold Member artist Posts: 688	Re: sympathy versus condolences Reply #7 - Apr 30^th, 2010, 9:44am Hi Martin, in German we have the word "sympathy" also = Sympathie, but it would never be used in cases where there is a loss or death. Although Sympathie also has the connotation of feeling with somebody, in German we would use the phrasing "Anteilnahme" (which also means sympathy) in death/loss cases. barbara
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martin_138364

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Re: sympathy versus condolences
Reply #8 - Apr 30^th, 2010, 10:15am

Hi Barbara,

Many languages have been built from others and our language is changing year from year, 40 years ago you could hear “what a gay day” meaning happy or pleasant, the word gay is not used that way in the UK today.

Condolences I would say is more formal, less emotion or keeping a distance.

Sympathy is more friendly or showing more feeling.

I am in my mid 40’s and these two words could be interoperated differently by people older and younger than me. In addition, each culture or country have different takes on the same word, a preservative in the west is a type of jam but in Russia it is a type of birth control, in the UK “scotch” is the brand name for clear sticky tape in Australia it is a brand name for birth control. cry

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cheryl_133782

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Re: sympathy versus condolences
Reply #9 - Apr 30^th, 2010, 5:49pm

OK Barbara that was your fault Tongue

but there is a known glitch that has been brought up before where you hit the post button and it doesn't go to the next page so if you keep clicking post thinking it will move on from that page then as many times as you click is as many times as it gets posted to the forum. Gah! Huh

That's why sometimes we get multiple of the same thread.

Cheryl

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