How to express condolences

Question

One of my neighbours died some days ago. I want to write his widow a card (to not get in contact too much, because of corona-restrictions here) to express the condolences of our family. The widow speaks most Russian, and we do not share much common vocabulary in any language.

I tried to find some phrases or typical sentences via websearch, but because I am not able to read the Cyrillic alphabet, I am not very successful.

An additional "problem": I want to add some small amount of money, for some flowers at the grave, because it is not allowed to visit the burial itself. In my first language I would write something like "for a flowery greeting" or "for a greeting by/with flowers".

In conclusion I ask: Is there a common phrase to express condolences?

(And would be happy, if someone could add some additional nice words or phrases, I could use to write into the card)

Answer 1

The common phrase to express condolences is to say: "Примите, пожалуйста, мои [самые искренние] соболезнования" or, in short, "мои соболезнования". One can use also a verb like "я вам очень соболезную" - this form sometimes works better when you adding the reason why you express condolences.

So, to sum up in your particular scenario you can tell:

Наша семья соболезнует вашей утрате.

or

Примите наши искренние соболезнования по поводу вашей утраты.