死ぬ

Etymology
From, from. Appears in the oldest Japanese texts, including the ' of 720 and the ' of 759.

The ending historically had an irregular conjugation pattern, shared only by now-obsolete verb,  and auxiliary verb. The in verb  was viewed as identical to the auxiliary, and the verb  initially was thus never conjugated with this auxiliary as an additional suffix.

The auxiliary itself may have derived from the verb, ,  raising the possibility that the verb  may have derived from a fusion of  + ,.

The transition from the pattern to the regular  appears in texts from the  (1336–1573). The na irregular pattern persisted in increasingly limited use until the (1868–1929).

Verb

 * 1) to die
 * 2)  to die,  to perish, to cease to be anymore
 * 3) to become lifeless, to lack vitality, to show a lack of vigor
 * 1)  to die,  to perish, to cease to be anymore
 * 2) to become lifeless, to lack vitality, to show a lack of vigor
 * 1)  to die,  to perish, to cease to be anymore
 * 2) to become lifeless, to lack vitality, to show a lack of vigor
 * 1)  to die,  to perish, to cease to be anymore
 * 2) to become lifeless, to lack vitality, to show a lack of vigor
 * 1) to become lifeless, to lack vitality, to show a lack of vigor

Usage notes
This Japanese verb denotes an instantaneous action. The -te / -de + iru grammatical form is usually described in English as equivalent to the present progressive. However, for Japanese instantaneous verbs, this -te / -de + iru grammatical form instead more commonly indicates that the action of the verb has completed, and the result of the verb is the new current state.

For instance, shinu specifically denotes the instantaneous action of dying, whereas the English verb denotes more of a process. To express the idea of someone is now in the process of transitioning from alive to dead, English speakers would use the present continuous construction, someone is dying. However, the similar grammatical construction in Japanese,, instead means that someone is dead. To express the process in Japanese, speakers use the alternative constructions or.

Synonyms

 * See Thesaurus:死ぬ

Trivia
死ぬ is the only modern Japanese verb which ends in (an older example is, which is now archaic). Accordingly, it is often used in textbooks to illustrate the conjugation pattern for 〜ぬ verbs.