I'm sorry FOR or sorry ABOUT your loss?

[TheFarSide]

This has bugged me for ages. I hear sorry FOR your loss everywhere but it sounds wrong to me - like I pity your loss. I think it should be be sorry ABOUT your loss - but that doesn't sound great either. I googled it but got lots of websites about bereavement. Put me out of my misery.

TIA

Have only ever heard 'sorry for your loss'.
It is a set phrase like 'sorry for the inconvenience'.
Only time you would use 'about' is if you add a verb - sorry to hear about your loss.

You've reminded me that 'sorry for the inconvenience' bugs me too!

sorry for your loss only acceptable on nypd blue imo. pat and american, it's absolutely ghastly.

And there's 'I feel sorry for you'. That shouldn't be 'sorry about you' should it?

Depends on the context.

When people phone me at work to let me know their loved one has passed away I say 'I'm so sorry' as it seems most fitting, but in a card to someone who has recently been bereaved it feels better to write 'I'm so sorry for your loss'.

Can't think of an occasion when I'd say or write 'sorry about your loss'. Just doesn't seem right somehow, but then what the hell do I know?

Well thanks everyone. I think Aitch is right that it's an awful Americanism.

Sorry to hear about your loss...?

Yeah Sux & Mardy, sorry to hear about is more grammatically correct I think.

that would make sense as to why it appears to have translated directly into american cop speak, wouldn't it? interesting, cheers.

Peoples also still say 'sorry for your troubles'