Meaning & use
sympathetic person
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Meanings
nouncountable
Someone who shows care and understanding when another person is upset or in trouble.
Grammar: Often used with 'be' or 'seem': 'She is a sympathetic person.'
Patterns
- be a sympathetic person
- a sympathetic person to someone
When I lost my job, my neighbor was a very sympathetic person and listened for hours.
A good nurse is a sympathetic person who can comfort worried families.
He is not a sympathetic person, so people rarely tell him their problems.
nouncountableformal
Someone who supports a particular idea, group, or cause without being a member.
Grammar: Followed by 'to' or 'toward': 'a sympathetic person to the cause'.
Patterns
- a sympathetic person to something
- a sympathetic person toward something
The judge was seen as a sympathetic person to the workers' demands.
She is a sympathetic person toward environmental groups but has never joined one.
Word forms
| plural | sympathetic persons |
|---|
Common combinations
- a deeply sympathetic person
- My aunt is a deeply sympathetic person who always knows what to say.
- a sympathetic listener
- He is a sympathetic listener, so friends call him late at night.
- a sympathetic ear
- The teacher offered a sympathetic ear to the worried student.
- a sympathetic person to the cause
- The senator was a sympathetic person to the cause of free schools.
Synonyms and how they differ
- compassionate
- Stronger and more formal; it stresses feeling and acting on another's suffering.
- understanding
- Focuses on knowing why someone feels as they do, not necessarily on showing kindness.
- caring
- More general and warmer; it describes a person who looks after others' needs.
Opposites
Word family
- sympathy noun
- The feeling of being sorry for someone's trouble.
- sympathetically adverb
- In a way that shows care and understanding.
- unsympathetic adjective
- Not showing care or understanding.
Commonly confused: sympathetic person or nice? sympathetic person or sympathetic?
sympathetic person vs nice
Many learners use 'sympathetic' to mean 'nice' or 'pleasant', but English 'sympathetic' is only about sharing someone's feelings. A 'sympathetic person' is kind about your problems, not simply fun to be with.
sympathetic person vs sympathetic
As an adjective it can also mean 'supporting an idea', as in 'sympathetic to the plan'. As a noun phrase, 'sympathetic person' usually keeps the feelings meaning.
Practice
Which sentence uses 'sympathetic person' in the usual English way?
Choose one answer.
A sympathetic person shares and understands another's feelings, as in the second sentence. The first sentence describes someone fun to be with, which is 'nice' or 'likable', not 'sympathetic'.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “sympathetic person”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.