Meaning & use
my deepest sympathies
Last updated
Meaning
phrasefixed phraseformal
A polite expression used to tell someone you feel great sorrow for them after a death or a painful loss.
Grammar: Often used alone or after please accept: please accept my deepest sympathies.
Patterns
- my deepest sympathies to someone
- my deepest sympathies for something
- please accept my deepest sympathies
My deepest sympathies to you and your family.
Please accept my deepest sympathies for the loss of your father.
She wrote in the card, My deepest sympathies in this sad time.
Common combinations
- offer my deepest sympathies
- I would like to offer my deepest sympathies to the family.
- extend my deepest sympathies
- The principal extended his deepest sympathies to the students.
- accept my deepest sympathies
- Please accept my deepest sympathies on your loss.
- deepest sympathies to
- Deepest sympathies to everyone who knew him.
- send my deepest sympathies
- We sent our deepest sympathies with a handwritten note.
Synonyms and how they differ
- my condolences
- It is almost interchangeable but a little shorter and stiffer, and is used mainly after a death.
- I'm so sorry
- This is warmer and more casual, so it suits friends better than formal letters.
- my heartfelt sympathy
- This is similar in tone but sounds slightly more old-fashioned and emotional.
Word family
- sympathy noun
- sorrow shared with someone in trouble
- sympathize verb
- to feel or show sorrow for someone
- sympathetic adjective
- caring and understanding
- sympathetically adverb
- in a caring, understanding way
Commonly confused: my deepest sympathies or empathy?
my deepest sympathies vs empathy
Empathy means understanding another person's feelings by imagining them, while sympathy means feeling sorrow for them.
Practice
You hear that a colleague's mother has died. Which sentence suits a formal sympathy card?
Choose one answer.
Please accept my deepest sympathies is a formal, polite expression of sorrow. The others are cheerful or unrelated, so they would sound inappropriate.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “my deepest sympathies”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.