What's the difference between 施ぬ and ならなく? Apparently they both mean die, but what are the… - Feed Post by RovkirHexus
What's the difference between 施ぬ and ならなく? Apparently they both mean die, but what are the differences?
posted by RovkirHexus
Comments 4
Do you mean "死ぬ" and "なくなる"? the same as "die" (死ぬ) and "pass away" (なくなる).
If you search for 亡くなる (なくなる) in a proper Japanese dictionary like the Daijisen (http://dictionary.goo.ne.jp) it says this:
（亡くなる）「人が死ぬ」の婉曲的な言い方。
My translation: 亡くなる is a euphemistic way of speaking of a death of a person.
Definition of a euphemism: "a mild or indirect word or expression substituted for one considered to be too harsh or blunt when referring to something unpleasant or embarrassing."
So you'd use なくなる when speaking carefully about someone passing away recently, to avoid being too blunt about it.
If it is just something like an insect dying, then for this you wouldn't say なくなる. It would be weird to say something like "the snail I stepped on has passed away", lol, you would just bluntly say it died (死んだ).
I've found, in regards to daily conversation, generally people do not use 死んだ for people, regardless of time passed. In my (English-speaking) experience, we generally only used "passed away" for the first... 6 months or so? Of course, in both situations, school-age children are exempt.
Wow, I screwed up on those XD
Thanks for the responses everyone.
