# 死ぬ
## Japanese

* Kanji in this term
* 死
* し Grade: 3
* kun'yomi
* Alternative spellings
* 氏ぬ (filter-avoidance) 4ぬ (filter-avoidance)

### Etymology

From Old Japanese, from Proto-Japonic *sinu. Appears in the oldest Japanese texts, including the Nihon Shoki of 720 CE and the Man'yōshū of 759 CE.
The ぬ (nu) ending historically had an irregular conjugation pattern, shared only by now-obsolete verb 往ぬ, 去ぬ (inu, “go away; pass; disappear”) and auxiliary verb ぬ (nu, indicating completion, generally reserved for non-intentional, spontaneous, or intransitive actions). The ぬ (nu) in verb 死ぬ was viewed as identical to the auxiliary, and the verb 死ぬ initially was thus never conjugated with this auxiliary as an additional suffix.
The auxiliary itself may have derived from the verb 往ぬ, 去ぬ (inu, “go away; pass; disappear”), raising the possibility that the verb 死ぬ may have derived from a fusion of 死 (shi, “death”) + 往ぬ, 去ぬ (inu, “go away; pass; disappear”).
The transition from the ナ行変格活用 (na-gyō henkaku katsuyō, “na irregular conjugation”) pattern to the regular 四段活用 (yodan katsuyō, “quadrigrade conjugation”) appears in texts from the Muromachi period (1336–1573). The na irregular pattern persisted in increasingly limited use until the Meiji period (1868–1929).

### Pronunciation

* (Tokyo) しぬ [shìnú] (Heiban – [0])
* IPA: [ɕinɯ̟]
* Tokyo pitch accent of conjugated forms of 「死ぬ」
Source: Online Japanese Accent Dictionary :
| Stem forms ||||
| Terminal (終止形) Attributive (連体形) | 死ぬ | しぬ | [shìnú] |
| Imperative (命令形) | 死ね | しね | [shìné] |
| Key constructions ||||
| Passive | 死なれる | しなれる | [shìnárérú] |
| Causative | 死なせる | しなせる | [shìnásérú] |
| Potential | 死ねる | しねる | [shìnérú] |
| Volitional | 死のう | しのー | [shìnóꜜò] |
| Negative | 死なない | しなない | [shìnánáí] |
| Negative perfective | 死ななかった | しななかった | [shìnánáꜜkàttà] |
| Formal | 死にます | しにます | [shìnímáꜜsù] |
| Perfective | 死んだ | しんだ | [shìńdá] |
| Conjunctive | 死んで | しんで | [shìńdé] |
| Hypothetical conditional | 死ねば | しねば | [shìnéꜜbà] |

### Verb

死(し)ぬ • (shinu) intransitive godan (stem 死(し)に (shini), past 死(し)んだ (shinda))
* to die
    死(し)にたいほど苦(くる)しい
       shinitai hodo kurushii
       so excruciating one wishes to die
    大(だい)事(じ)な人(ひと)に死(し)なれる
       daiji na hito ni shinareru
       to have someone important die on you → to lose someone important
** 2001 January 23, Masami Kurumada, “女神(アテナ)の聖闘士(セイント)の巻(まき) [Athena’s Saints]”, in Saint(セイント)星(セイ)矢(ヤ) [Saint Seiya], volume 1 (fiction), Tokyo: Shueisha, →ISBN, page 298:
    ドラゴン紫(シ)龍(リュウ)は死(し)んだ‼
       Doragon Shiryū wa shinda‼
       Dragon Shiryū is dead!!
** 2010, “夕方(ゆうがた)のピアノ (Yūgata no piano)”, の子(こ) (Noko) (lyrics), performed by 神聖(しんせい)かまってちゃん (Shinsei Kamattechan) [Shinsei Kamattechan]:
    死(し)ねよ佐藤(さとう)　おまえのために
       Shine yo Satō omae no tame ni
       Go kill yourself, Sato, for your own fucking sake
       (literally, “Die, Sato, for your own sake”)
* (by extension) to die, to perish, to cease to be anymore
    (Can we add an example for this sense?)
* to become lifeless, to lack vitality, to show a lack of vigor
    目(め)が死(し)んだような人(ひと)
       me ga shinda yō na hito
       person with dead eyes
       (literally, “person with eyes that appear to have died”)

#### 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 die 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, 誰かが死んでいる (dare ka ga shinde iru), instead means that someone is dead. To express the process in Japanese, speakers use the alternative constructions 死んでいるところだ (shinde iru tokoro da, literally “it is the moment of dying”) or 死にかけている (shinikakete iru, literally “starting to die”).

#### Conjugation

Katsuyōkei ("stem forms") :
| Mizenkei ("imperfective") | 死な | しな | shina |
| Ren’yōkei ("continuative") | 死に | しに | shini |
| Shūshikei ("terminal") | 死ぬ | しぬ | shinu |
| Rentaikei ("attributive") | 死ぬ | しぬ | shinu |
| Kateikei ("hypothetical") | 死ね | しね | shine |
| Meireikei ("imperative") | 死ね | しね | shine |
| Key constructions ||||
| Passive | 死なれる | しなれる | shinareru |
| Causative | 死なせる 死なす | しなせる しなす | shinaseru shinasu |
| Potential | 死ねる | しねる | shineru |
| Volitional | 死のう | しのう | shinō |
| Negative | 死なない | しなない | shinanai |
| Negative continuative | 死なず | しなず | shinazu |
| Formal | 死にます | しにます | shinimasu |
| Perfective | 死んだ | しんだ | shinda |
| Conjunctive | 死んで | しんで | shinde |
| Hypothetical conditional | 死ねば | しねば | shineba |
Stem forms :
| Irrealis (未然形) | 死な | しな | sina |
| Continuative (連用形) | 死に | しに | sini |
| Terminal (終止形) | 死ぬ | しぬ | sinu |
| Attributive (連体形) | 死ぬる | しぬる | sinuru |
| Realis (已然形) | 死ぬれ | しぬれ | sinure |
| Imperative (命令形) | 死ね | しね | sine |
| Key constructions ||||
| Negative | 死なず | しなず | sinazu |
| Contrasting conjunction | 死ぬれど | しぬれど | sinuredo |
| Causal conjunction | 死ぬれば | しぬれば | sinureba |
| Conditional conjunction | 死なば | しなば | sinaba |
| Past tense (firsthand knowledge) | 死にき | しにき | siniki |
| Past tense (secondhand knowledge) | 死にけり | しにけり | sinikeri |
| Perfect tense (conscious action) | 死につ | しにつ | sinitu |
| Perfect tense (natural event) | 死にぬ | しにぬ | sininu |
| Perfect-continuative tense | 死にたり | しにたり | sinitari |
| Volitional | 死なむ | しなむ | sinamu |

#### Synonyms

* See Thesaurus:死ぬ

#### Antonyms

* 生(う)まれる (umareru, “be born”)
* 生(い)きる (ikiru, “live”)

#### Related terms

* 滅(ほろ)びる (horobiru), 滅(ほろ)ぶ (horobu)
* 潰(つぶ)れる (tsubureru), 潰(つい)える (tsuieru)

### Trivia

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

### References

* ↑ c. 759, Man’yōshū, book 5, poem 889:, text here
* 1 2 3 4 Shōgaku Tosho (1988) 国語大辞典（新装版） [Unabridged Dictionary of Japanese (Revised Edition)] (in Japanese), Tōkyō: Shogakukan, →ISBN
* 1 2 3 4 5 Matsumura, Akira, editor (2006), 大辞林 [Daijirin] (in Japanese), Third edition, Tokyo: Sanseidō, →ISBN
* 1 2 3 4 Matsumura, Akira (1995) 大辞泉 [Daijisen] (in Japanese), First edition, Tokyo: Shogakukan, →ISBN
* ↑ NHK Broadcasting Culture Research Institute, editor (1998), NHK日本語発音アクセント辞典 [NHK Japanese Pronunciation Accent Dictionary] (in Japanese), Tokyo: NHK Publishing, Inc., →ISBN
* ↑ Kindaichi, Kyōsuke et al., editors (1997), 新明解国語辞典 [Shin Meikai Kokugo Jiten] (in Japanese), Fifth edition, Tokyo: Sanseidō, →ISBN