empathize

Groundbelow73 · May 17, 2015

And the next question that is bothering me.

He had seen how he empathized the situation of the girls.

The meaning is that he felt sorry for them, but he didn't pity them, he empathized, felt with them, put himself into their position. I know "empathize" is the right verb, but I'm not sure how to use it.
"He empathized with the girls" sounds wrong. "He empathized the situation of the girls / the girls were in" sounds pretty "German".

How would a native speaker express it?

slashedkaze · May 17, 2015

There's nothing wrong about "He empathized with the girls." Although you might want to use sympathize here to get across that he feels sorry for them.

mirandashell · May 17, 2015

In English, it's 'empathized with'. The 'z' makes it American English rather than British English.

apchelopech · May 17, 2015

Groundbelow73 said:
And the next question that is bothering me.

He had seen how he empathized the situation of the girls.

The meaning is that he felt sorry for them, but he didn't pity them, he empathized, felt with them, put himself into their position. I know "empathize" is the right verb, but I'm not sure how to use it.
"He empathized with the girls" sounds wrong. "He empathized the situation of the girls / the girls were in" sounds pretty "German".
How would a native speaker express it?

Actually, the meaning isn't to feel sorry for someone - that's sympathise. To empathise is to recognise and relate to someone else's situation, without necessarily feeling sorry for them.
And as has been noted, 'empathise' is invariably followed with 'with' - so your 'sounds wrong' version is actually right.

Groundbelow73 · May 17, 2015

apchelopech said:
Actually, the meaning isn't to feel sorry for someone - that's sympathise. To empathise is to recognise and relate to someone else's situation, without necessarily feeling sorry for them.
And as has been noted, 'empathise' is invariably followed with 'with' - so your 'sounds wrong' version is actually right.

Yes, that's what I was trying to express - "relate to someone else's situation".

Thanks to everyone!

Jamesaritchie · May 17, 2015

The problem is with your sentence construction, not with the word "empathize". American or British, it doesn't work.

evilrooster · May 17, 2015

Jamesaritchie said:
The problem is with your sentence construction, not with the word "empathize". American or British, it doesn't work.

This comment would be so much more helpful with either an explanation of why, a suggestion of a better construction, or both, James.

empathize

Groundbelow73

slashedkaze

Smutter

mirandashell

apchelopech

Groundbelow73

Jamesaritchie

evilrooster

Wicked chicken