Hello! When you use the phrase: “deal with” it is usually referring to an annoying situation that you don’t want to be in. Example: Sarah is gossiping behind Ana’s back. Ana soon realizes that Sarah is gossiping about her because Ana’s friend, Brian, tells her. Brian then asks Ana if she wants to confront Sarah about her behavior. Ana responds with, “No, I would rather not deal with her.” When you use the phrase: “sort out” it is usually referring to a situation where you want to understand the cause of the problem and fix it. Example: Ana gets in a fight with Brain, her friend, because of a misunderstanding. Ana, being very upset, goes to her mom and tells her about the fight between her and Brian. Her mom then tells her that she should consider sorting out the misunderstanding between her and Brian. Ana agrees and speaks to Brian about the fight they had; they listen to each other’s side of the story and sort out their issues with one another. Brian and Ana hug and go back to their friendly relationship. (I hope this helps; let me know if you have any questions)

I'd go along with Fraser and T mur - context is all important... Here is another context to think over: After the Harry and Meghan interview, the British royal family probably need to call a meeting to decide how to deal with their problems. They need to decide on a strategy - on how they can best handle the situation. However, the problems brought up by the interview are complex and might not be so easy to sort out. The best way to deal with this situation, would be to move fast and sort things out sooner, rather than later... Can you see the slight difference here? But, as T mur suggests, they are frequently interchangeable.

They’re pretty similar, but as a quick-and-easy rule “deal with” is probably more versatile than “sort out”. I’ll give you some examples and hopefully you can come up with your own conclusion. They are used the same way here: “I have to deal with this problem myself.” “I have to sort this problem out myself.” They are not interchangeable here: “I deal with noisy children at work.” — this sentence sounds natural. “I sort out noisy children at work” — this sentence does not sound natural. I’m in no way certain, but it seems like “deal with” and “sort out” are synonymous concerning intangible objects like problems, but sort out takes a different meaning for tangible objects like children. For context, I’m from the midwest USA.

"To sort out" usually means "to fix" or "to correct", either a problem or a situation. For example, "I sorted out the problem with the car". "To deal with" is more general and means "to handle" or "to cope". It could mean "to fix" but that is not required. For example "I dealt with the difficult customer" or "I am dealing with the death of my father". Phrasal verbs are very difficult. :-(

To me they are interchangeable. The only time I would think you need to be careful with these expressions is referring to people as they can be seen as quite aggressive and context is very important