If I want to describe a very helpful colleague in my office (who always helps other colleagues solve their problems related to work, personal affairs, etc.), are these adjectives appropriate/ natural to native speakers?
-caring
-neighbourly
-accommodating
-benevolent
-considerate
-sympathetic
-beneficent
If you are talking about a colleague, then only these work, in my opinion:
caring.....accommodating....considerate .....sympathetic
Context is always important; labelling is rarely important.
Regarding "sympathetic", it always gives me an impression that it is used to describe miserable situations that you feel sorry/ pity for something sad (so that it does not seem natural for describing a colleague who simply likes to help others, which is not sad at all.)
Is it true? How do native speakers perceive "sympathetic" this adjective?
And how about "neighbourly"? Why is it inappropriate?
You did mention "problems": "helps other colleagues solve their problems related to work, personal affairs, etc." Problems are not happy things.
The person would need to be sympathetic to those people who had those problems if he was going to try and help them.
"Neighbourly" is wrong because these people aren't his neighbours; they're his colleagues. We don't know what he's like as a neighbour.
I am happy with your explanation about "sympathetic"
But how about "neighborly"? This adjective does not mean someone is a neighbor of someone else"
[more neighborly; most neighborly] : helpful and friendly
▪ It was very neighborly [=kind] of you to help. ▪ the importance of neighborly [=friendly] relations between countries ▪ She was friendly in a neighborly way.
Where I come from, "neighbourly" only means "helpful and friendly" if it's done between people who could be neighbours. You might help someone in our street clean up after a flood. You might help someone who's having a problem in your local supermarket. It means being helpful and friendly merely because you're a neighbour.
But it doesn't apply to how you treat your work colleagues.
oh ok!
Actually the definition is from Merriam Webster's Learner's Dictonary.
Ok, you said that "neighborly" can only be used on neighbors but not colleagues. Then what kind(s) of neighbor should it/they be? Not reduced to the residential one right? So it can be the stranger sitting next to you in a restaurant who needs your little help?
Can't I help my colleague in the way which is like a neighbor?