Question

what is the difference between. pardon and forgive

Answer 1

A pardon is a government decision to allow a person who has been convicted of a crime to be free and absolved of that conviction, as if never convicted. Today, pardons are granted in many countries when individuals have demonstrated that they have fulfilled their debt to society, or are otherwise considered to be deserving.

Forgiveness is more generic. It's more often used to describe a personal decision to excuse someone for some kind of offense. As previously mentioned, you can also "pardon" them for that offense, but outside of certain "set" phrases, this use is not common in modern English.