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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)

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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.

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    "мои соболезнования" - Will this be suiting for "our condolences" too? Or only for "my condolences"? Maybe you could add the English translation of the phrases? (I copy-paste into the translator, to understand it). In any case: Thank you for your help! Mar 5, 2021 at 10:51
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    @Allerleirauh "мои" - for my, "наши" for ours.
    – shabunc
    Mar 5, 2021 at 10:52
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    Another popular option is to say: "мы скорбим вместе с вами" or "мы разделяем вашу скорбь". I don't think that deserves an additional answer so I'll just leave it here.
    – user10940
    Mar 6, 2021 at 21:54

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