Today’s adjective is “compassionate”, and it is used to describe a person who has a lot of sympathy for another person in a bad situation and then does something to help them. For example:
Mother Theresa was one of the most compassionate people in the world because she helped extremely poor people in India.
My aunt is a very compassionate woman. She volunteers to give food and blankets to homeless people.
Why didn’t you give any money to that charity? It’s to help sick children in this city. You should be more compassionate!
A: Who’s the most compassionate person you know?
B: It’s my friend, Nancy. She’s always giving money to charity.
It’s important to note that if we describe a person as “compassionate” they must take action and do something to try to help people. It’s not enough to simply feel sympathy for people.
Also, please note that in my last example, the person replied by talking about a person in his/her life. When someone asks us about a person that we know, it has to be a person that we personally know. We don’t talk about famous people in these situations.
In addition, please note that because this is an adjective that ends with -ate, the pronunciation of the last syllable is /it/. Therefore, we pronounce this word /kum PASH shun it/.