What is the difference between "I'm sorry for her" and "I pity on her"?

Native speaker’s answer
Rebecca
I would say that in most cases there is no real difference between "pity on" someone and "feeling sorry" for someone. Both of them mean that you treat someone or something kindly due to feeling sympathy or compassion toward them, especially because of their bad situation or because they are suffering. Ex: Bill took pity on me and let me stay at his house. Ex: Bill felt sorry for me and let me stay at his house. I will say that the nuance of "pity" is a lot stronger than "sorry". I think that feeling "pity (for someone else)" means has a meaning like you can put yourself in their place and understand what they're feeling but at the same time it carries an idea that you think they could perhaps have prevented the situation that they are in. So sometimes there is some negative nuance to "pity". Whereas "feel sorry (for someone)" means more like you can understand their situation which was most likely caused by circumstances totally out of their control. Ex: He had been mean and no one was talking to him, but I took pity on him. Ex: She was shy so I felt sorry for her and spoke to her.