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idiom requests - What would be a good word for expressing "a gesture of sympathy/empathy"


I've had someone say "I'm sorry!" to me to express a gesture of sympathy/empathy, whereas my answer to that was "Don't apologise for things you cannot control..."


The only thing I can think of in English that comes even close to what I want to express is "my condolences" but in this case, no one died, so that's not a good fit neither...


So, a question to the experts: What would be a good idiom to use to tell someone that I empathise/sympathise with them, without saying "I'm sorry..."?


Note: This question is a bit similar to this one but that one doesn't really answer my question and Google didn't turn up anything useful either... :-(



Answer



Consider I feel for you


To feel for someone: to feel the emotional pain that someone else is feeling; to empathize or sympathize with someone


I really feel for you. I'm so sorry it turned out this way.


Fred felt for Dave, but there was nothing he could do for him.


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