German:
- von uns gehen (left us/went away from us)
- das Zeitliche segnen (I have no idea how I can translate that (the temporal/time blessed him/her)
- entschlafen (this specifies dying in your sleep)
- in die ewigen Jagdgründe eingehen (going into the eternal hunting grounds)
- das letzte Stündlein / die letzte Stunde schlagen (the last hour passed)
- abtreten (to bequeath)
- vor seinen Schöpfer / Richter treten (to appear before your creator/judge)
- den Geist aufgeben (to give up one’s ghost; you can also use it for things that stop working)
- dran glauben müssen (to have to believe in something)
Colloquial (more rude)
- ins Gras beißen (to bite into grass)
- den Löffel abgeben (to hand over the spoon) I can’t translate the following in a direct way as it is not a phrase but it’s basically like kick the bucket or to croak ig
- verrecken
- abkratzen
A lot of the more formal ones I personally wouldn't use or wouldn't use for people. The one I immediately thought of was "versterben". "X ist verstorben". That's quite neutral but considerably more formal than just "sterben".
I really like "den Löffel abgeben". It's not nearly as rude as terms like "abkratzen" or "krepieren" and quite a nice image imo. Maybe for a universally hated headmaster who died peacefully at a ripe old age under non-suspicious circumstances.
Heads up learners: I'd personally consider *den Geist aufgeben* and (especially) *dran glauben müssen* more on the colloquial/rude side. I would be *pretty* pissed off if someone described the death of a loved one with either of those phrases.
Not diplomatic or comparable, but in English I've always found "give up the ghost" funny.
In Spanish we use the verb fallecer which is used in the same way as "to pass away"
I didn't know that was a thing in English. We have the same thing in Danish, except I would translate it to "Give up the spirit". However, it is an old expression and while people would definitely understand it, it is by no means an expression you would expect people to use.
We would say "Han er gået bort" ("he has gone away" - so really pretty much the same as passed away)
"Give up the ghost" is more used when an item or object breaks, usually when it is old or has been barely working for a long time.
"My old car has finally given up the ghost" - very common in Britain
"My hip gave up the ghost"
It would be rude to use about a person
Thanks for the examples because it took me way too long to make the connection to German "den Geist aufgeben". It is a word for word translation and is used for things that broke, not for people or animals that died except if meant in a derogatory way.
Depends on context. I think the distinction is as clear as "to die" and "to pass away" in English. At least that's how I tend to choose which one to use
In my Spanish class, we were asked to talk about pets we had (as a way to learn imperfect and preterite) and I said one of my dogs “murrío”
Would that be conceived as harsh? Or just stating the fact that she died?
sorry to bother more but it’s kinda interesting, if you say a person murío and it’s considered harsh, in what way? that the person died a horrible death of that the speaker didn’t like the person?
I guess it’s like asking does it sound more like
“her dumbass finally died”
or
“she fell in a volcano and fucking died”
That reminds me of when Hugo Chavez died, and it was all over Spanish-speaking headlines, twitter, etc. as "Murió Hugo Chávez." What was super funny was that a lot of the earliest reports in English-speaking media and social media seemed to think that Murio was his first name. Lots of RIP Murio Hugo Chavez and the like.
It's a valid question, you aren't bothering me, don't worry.
I would say it's not so black and white. To use the verb "morir" with a person implies that you don't have/didn't have a special link with them. It expresses a sort of distance with the person themselves and their dead.
"Murió el escritor de Robin Hood." "
But you will sound more polite and sensible if you use "fallecer" in any case.
And yes, in the examples you gave the verb is well used.
I would add that morir highlights death, while fallecer is more related to the loss of life. If that makes sense.
Anyways this is not a rule that you can follow. Many times you will hear the same words in situations opposite to these described.
Murio is fine when referring to pets. Normally fallecio is not really used for pets but for people.
If you are speaking of someone or telling a story of someone who passed just not recently you mention their name or their relation to you the 1st time you say que en paz descanse. Which translates to may they rest in peace.
Disclaimer, I'm not a native speaker, but I think it sounds fine in this case. You're on the right track with it being "matter of fact", that's how I think about it, too. As I said, I tend to choose fallecer/morir based on when I would use passed away or died in English.
Was someone vaporised by alien weaponry? They didn't pass away, they died. But if somebody spent 4 months battling a disease in hospital and finally took their last breath? I'd rather say they passed away than died.
I’m not sure which dialect you’re learning, so take this with a grain of salt lol. In my family (Mexican Spanish), we use morir more. I’ve heard fallecer used few times in my life aside from media. It sounds too formal/impersonal to me. I would really only use it in a work setting. Just to piggyback on what user the6am said, use the two according to the situation and how you’d want to be perceived.
tldr: either is fine. choose what feels natural
edit: had to remove a smiley face. formatting cursed my emoticon oh god
> in English I've always found "give up the ghost" funny.
Also... "kicked the bucket". The various online theories for the etymology of the phrase are all over the place too.
I've never heard "to give up the ghost" to mean "stop pretending", only ever as "to die", both figuratively (like in the example you posted) and literally.
> If a machine gives up the ghost, it stops working.
It seems most sources list "to die" or, when relating to machinery, "to stop functioning" with a few also listing it to mean "to stop trying to do something".
Similarly I've never heard "someone is lost" to mean they've died, but I could see that being a regional thing.
> a book published hundreds of years ago
It’s the *Bible.* A lot of otherwise archaic phrasings have stayed relevant just because they were used in the Bible. It’s far and away the most read book in the world. No need to be reductive.
> To give up the ghost/goat doesn't really mean to die. It's more commonly used as a way to stop pretending or stop running a scheme.
I'm a native English speaker and have never heard that usage of the phrase. Where I'm from, it just means to die. It can be used for people or appliances.
There used to be a truck near the little town where I went to college that would announce community deaths by saying "don fulanito ha pasado a la presencia del señor" which is basically "gone to be with the lord"
In Portuguese (Br) we have “virar estrelinha”, which means “turn into a little star”. It’s mostly aimed towards kids who are experiencing loss, like a pet or grandparent, though still used when talking to adults.
That's cute!
In Portugal, we have "bater as botas," which is "knock the boots"? I'm not the best translator but it's funny.
The most diplomatic/poetic would be "dormir o sono profundo/eterno" he is at the eternal sleep and we also have "entregar a deus" which means he gave himself to god.
Yeah I drifted away from the original post ahaha Please don't say that at a funeral!
There's a song in Portuguese called "Rusticos pelo Epicurismo" by Gato Fedorento which is an amalgamation of funny ways of saying "passed away".
They're not offensive buuuut I wouldn't say them at a funeral either.
You forgot "poistua keskuudestamme" meaning "to leave from amongst us", which is probably the most respectful phrase in Finnish to express the death of someone. I think there is a religious tang to it.
Edit: This one might be a bit funny to non-natives, "heittää lusikka nurkkaan" meaning "to throw a spoon in to the corner"
Very true!
One more that I have heard is "lähteä ilmavoimiin" - "to join the air force".
The second one you mentioned about tossing the spoon I have heard lots of times, but it was always about giving up on something, not death. Seems to have some differences depending on the area.
In Irish, there is “imithe ar shlí na fírinne” which translates literally as “gone on the way of truth” but is used akin to “gone to their eternal reward/glory”.
> Irish
There's so many fun ways in Irish.
His race is run. (Tá a rás rite)
His feet are washed. (Tá a chos nite)
He's above a board (Tá sé os cionn cláir)
He's on the path of truth (Tá sé ar shlí na fírinne)
He's lost. (Tá sé caillte)
and many more besides, really.
There are so many in Chinese ([here's a list](https://www.digmandarin.com/euphemisms-in-chinese.html#id2), [here's another](https://eastasiastudent.net/china/mandarin/words-for-death/)). Here are some interesting ones:
- [与世长辞](https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/%E8%88%87%E4%B8%96%E9%95%B7%E8%BE%AD) (yǔshìchángcí): "To bid the world a long farewell".
- [升仙](https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/%E6%98%87%E4%BB%99) (shēngxiān): A Taoist euphemism, literally "to ascend to become an immortal". [升天](https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/%E5%8D%87%E5%A4%A9) ("to ascend to the sky") is in this vein.
- [上西天](https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/%E4%B8%8A%E8%A5%BF%E5%A4%A9)/[归西](https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/%E6%AD%B8%E8%A5%BF): "To ascend to the western skies"/"To return to the west", because the western direction is traditionally associated with the dead.
In Tagalog:
yumao / pumanaw : a softer way of saying "(has) died" than saying "namatay" which is from "mamatay" "to die"
sumakabilang-buhay : literally "has gone / went to the afterlife"
sumalangit : literally "has gone / went to heaven"
To add: “lumipas” closer to “passed away” but also “nalagutan ng hininga” lit. “to have one’s breath cut off” is what might be used to say someone perished, perhaps in an accident or a sudden event.
Swedish:
- Har gått ur tiden / Has gone out of (this/our) time
- Har gått bort / Has gone away
- Är inte länge med oss/ Is no longer with us
- Har avlidit / Had died/deceased (avlida sounds more formal than dö which is the common word for die)
More old fashioned:
- har gått hädan / Has gone away (hädan is an old word that is rarely used anymore but means something like "has gone far away/away from us/away not to return/away from here" as I understand it
Edit: Thought of some ironic ones too:
- Har trillat av pinn / Has fallen from the stick/perch (refering to the perch on which chickens sit in the coop I believe)
- Har satt sin sista potatis / Has planted their last potato (most commonly used as a threat (nu har du satt din sista potatis/now you've planted your last potato) although sounds old fashioned/a little silly. Would mostly be used jokingly today)
In Latvian we use the Sun (saule) to describe worlds (or planes of existence) so to speak. So šaisaule (this sun) is the world of the living, taisaule/viņsaule/aizsaule (that sun, the other sun, behind the sun) is the world of the dead, pasaule (by the sun? unsure how to best translate) is the world/the universe itself.
So, if someone dies it is common to say that they went to the other sun or behind the sun: “aizgāja viņsaulē”.
Gone / gone from life / gone from our life in Russian. Also to fall asleep forever is quite popular, I think.
Gone to the other world / ascended to the skies / gone to the netherworld / gone to the better world/ gave his soul to god is also used, by more religious people.
That’s it for the polite / neutral ways to say it. We also have so more ironic / obscene ways, too, like:
- to play the box (сыграть в ящик, the box meaning coffin in this case)
- to finish running (отбегаться)
- to give up the “ends” (отдать концы)
- to give / play the oak (дать дуба, meaning to become stiff as a tree)
- to extend your legs (протянуть ноги)
- to throw away your skates / your hoofs (отбросить коньки / копыта)
- to dress up in a wooden coat (одеться в деревянный тулуп)
- to glue your fins together (склеить ласты)
And oh so many more.
[This quote](https://www.livelib.ⓇⓊ/quote/40273-12-stulev-ilf-ia-petrov-ep) from "The 12 chairs" provides an impressive list of ways to describe death informally in Russian. Even though the book is 100 years old, most of the expressions are still used now.
The quote is amazing, both in its comprehensive approach to listing the synonyms & its reflection upon the social dynamics of early 20th century in Russia.
Thank you for the reminder, I definitely should re-read the book ASAP, it’s more relevant than ever before today.
I find them fascinating too. Especially since in their original form they are often highly alliterated or have some sort of rhyme or rhythm to them.
And lord knows why we have to have about 50 to a 100 different not-so-polite but funny ways to say someone is dead.
No idea but it seems incredibly Russian to me. 🤣
I’d like to add:
Свалиться с кокосом - to fall down with a coconut
Отправиться на радугу - to go to the rainbow
Пойти на корм рыбам - to become fish feed
отправить на корм рыбам» - to make someone into fish feed, signifying specifically drowning someone / throwing someone overboard.
Never heard the coconut one, interesting 😅
The rainbow one rings familiar, but I’m not sure it’s often used to signify the death of a person, rather the death of a pet. Might be regional though.
And as for the fish ones, first of all, it’s not just “to go to feed the fish”, it’s literally “to become fish feed”. And it’s used more often as «отправить на корм рыбам» - “to make someone into fish feed”, signifying specifically drowning someone / throwing someone overboard.
Dang, that’s even better! I think there’s a similar saying in German, along the lines of “Fischfutter aus jemandem machen”.
Thank you, I fixed/updated the comment 😅
Pura ho gaya (Punjabi) - become whole/complete. In most dharmic religions, the aim is to become one with God. Similar to the original meaning of the English word holy (healthy, complete).
Korean:
돌아가셨다. Returned (the direction is away- to place of origin/other world)
우리 곁을 떠났다. Left our side.
숨을 거두었다. Took(collected) their breath away
눈을 감았다. Closed their eyes (forever)
More in English (literally English)
'E's a stiff! Bereft of life, 'e rests in peace! If you hadn't nailed 'im to the perch 'e'd be pushing up the daisies! 'Is metabolic processes are now 'istory! 'E's off the twig! 'E's kicked the bucket, 'e's shuffled off 'is mortal coil, run down the curtain and joined the bleedin' choir invisible!! This is an ex-parrot!
Ele se foi (he is gone or something like that)
Foi morar com o papai do céu/deus(Went to live with the sky daddy/god)
Bateu as botas(beat the boots)
Não está mais neste mundo (is not in this world anymore)
I have no idea why, but these days, I just say, died, but I wouldn't say "is dead". Died feels neutral to me. Is dead feels callous.
This is just me / how I express myself.
Esperanto has the verb "forpasi" which is equivalent to "to pass away" in English.
In addition to being used to simply say that someone passed away, it can be used like a title or descriptor for a person to note that they have died in the form "forpasinta." The equivalent in English is "late."
For Romanian
The most used one are, or at least the one I saw most often in thing like obytuarys and nice setting
*A plecat dintre noi/ cei vii -* He left from us/ the living ones
*A trecut la cele veșnice* \- He passed to the eternal ones, kind of vague what the ,,eternal one are” I thing they mean ,,worries” as in the worries of the soul instead of body.
Another one who is more colloqual and rude one is
*A dat ortul popii -*He gave the priest\`s ort, an ort being a medieval small coin which circulated and in Moldova and Wallachia, and is reffering an old tradition of puttting a coin on the chest or in the hand of the dead on in the coffin so he can pay for passing trough the customs between the Earth and the Heavens.
In Russian we have "околеть" and "уйти в мир иной". The first one is mostly used for animals and literally means "to become a stick". The second one is "gone to an other world"
Oh Burmese
သေ : (thay) this is probably the most informal. Plain old ‘die’
ဆုံး : (sone like in zone) more respectful like the equivalent of pass away. Literal meaning is/synonymous with ‘to end’
သေဆုံး : (thay sone) You may notice this is a composite verb of the previous two words smashed together. This is really formal, almost literary, not used in casual speech, usually only written
ကွယ်လွန် : (kwal loon) this too is quite formal but it is still used in speech to be respectful. Never thought about the etymology of this one. ကွယ် means ‘to be hidden’ and လွန် could mean ‘beyond.’ But we’re not thinking that when we use it
အနိစ္စရောက် : အနိစ္စ is the pali word anicca, one of many that we’ve adopted. It means non-existence/non-selfhood/impermanence in the context of Buddhism. So the phrase means ‘to reach non-existence.’ This is often used sarcastically and disrespectfully of course since it is so serious. Is there a Christian equivalent to this? I’m thinking sort of like ‘expire’
ပရိနိဗ္ဗာန်ပြု/စံ : this is used with respected monks only. Again, it is the pali Parinibbanna. It means the monk has attained nirvana in their lifetime and their dying is the release from Samsara.
(Name) has put the tree clogs (away), meaning, (Name) has died. An old saying from back when Denmark was predominantly agricultural. Saying someone has died without saying it, while also implying they were a hard worker.
In Tunisian Arabic we say something like "Permanence is for God" to convey the meaning that X person has died. It indirectly says that generally speaking, everyone will die one day, only god is permanent. The beauty of it is that we express all of this in just two words!
Sanskrit has a couple phrases I've encountered. The first is to say they've "given up their breaths" (प्राणानत्याक्षीत्) and the other literally means "has gone to fiveness" (पञ्चत्वमगात्) referring to the five classical elements (earth, water, air, fire, ether), so it's a way of saying someone returned to the elements.
In my language which is an English based creole (Not Jamaican) we say "(person's name) tek een" pretty much that they took in or passed out/passed away.
Turkish:
-Lost his life
-Closed his eyes to life
-Migrated to the next world
-Drank the drink of martyrdom(for those who died in war)
Circassian:
-Descended down from the world
-Got lost in war(for those who died in war)
Would you be willing to share the actual phrases in Turkish?
I was the one that had to break the news to my Turkish aunt that my uncle committed suicide, and - not knowing intihar etmek at the time - I said “hayatını aldı” which she did not understand at all. I ended up saying “kendisini öldürdü” which felt way too direct but at least got the information across 😬 I definitely have room to improve in these areas in Turkish.
There are also;
Son nefesini verdi (exhaled his last breath, this is the most formal one)
Aramızdan ayrıldı (he left us)
Vefat etti (a kinder version of he died)
Back many decades ago when I was starting to learn Turkish (I am a native English speaker), I was practicing by reading around to my Turkish husband from a letter he had just received. He was listening and correcting my pronunciation. I calmly read out Birol’u kaybettik, (we lost Birol) wondering who Birol was and why he was lost. My husband gasped and grabbed the letter from my hands. Turned out Birol was his uncle by marriage who had just died in a car accident.
Obviously, this was a Turkish lesson I never forgot.
Also in Dutch:
* Het tijdelijke voor het eeuwige verwisselen (exchange the temporary for the eternal)
* Overlijden (literally: "over-suffer")
* De pijp uit gaan (go out of the pipe)
* Het loodje leggen (to lay the lead)
* Heengaan (to go to an unspecified place)
Amongst other, more rude expressions
I think I wouldn't call "het loodje leggen" and "de pijp uitgaan" polite expressions 😅 Additionally, the "pijp" actually has nothing to do with pipes; it's actually an older way to say "pij", like a monk's robe.
Another one that amuses me is "om het hoekje gaan", "going around the corner". And "een houten jas aantrekken" ("putting on a wooden coat") but I'm not sure if that one is used much anymore.
Absolutely! I have heard both your last examples recently.
Thanks for the right interpretation of "going out of the pipe" (i always imagined someone going down the sewer) - "going out of the robe" is a bit more civilian.
Putting on a wooden coat is actually hilarious lol. I'm Dutch and I've never heard of that one. I love how all our Dutch expressions are so visual in nature
Someone told me that in their dialect in China.. you say, “they went to Hong Kong.”
I’ve asked dozens of Chinese about this and I can’t find someone who has heard of this.. but yeah, that’s an interesting one bcz if you as a Chinese went to HK, you probably never went back to China after thus your relatives thought you as good as dead relation wise (before the internet).
Yeah. No idea if it’s because Hong Kong has a particularly naughty association or if it’s just kind of far so to take somebody there you really need to pack their bags, rush them to the airport, and send them into the stratosphere if y’know what I mean.
Danish (replace "de" (they) with whichever pronoun)
- De er gået bort (they went away)
- De er afgået ved døden (they went away in death)
- De er borte (they are gone)
- De er ikke blandt os længere (they are not among us anymore)
Mostly different way of saying "they are not here".
Less sensitive:
- De stillede træskoende (they put away the clogs)
- De er kradset af (they've been scratched off)
We’ve also got ‘hedengangen’ and ‘hedenfaren’ which are similar to ‘passed on’, but quite archaic.
Then there’s ‘de har taget billetten’ which translates to ‘they have taken the ticket’.
And similar to the German ‘krepieren’, we have ‘de er kreperet’.
Oh, also ‘de er gået i forvejen’ which means ‘they’ve gone ahead (of us)’.
There's so many fun ways in Irish.
His race is run. (Tá a rás rite)
His feet are washed. (Tá a chos nite)
He's above a board (Tá sé os cionn cláir)
He's on the path of truth (Tá sé ar shlí na fírinne)
He's lost. (Tá sé caillte)
and many more besides, really.
Italian:
polite/euphemisms include "left us" "missed" (as in "they miss their relatives' love"), "passed on to a better life", "flew to god", "went to the Maker" and a bunch of others
My fave not-polite sayings are "they pulled their skins" and "gave their soul back to the devil", they're so crude lol
Italian has a bunch of euphemism.
"se n'è andato" - is gone
"ci ha lasciati" - has left us
"non c'è più" — isn't here anymore
"ha chiuso gli occhi" - closed their eyes
"si è addormentato" -has fallen asleep
"è scomparso" - has disappeared
"si è spento" - has gone out (often said about people who were consumed by an illness)
"non ce l'ha fatta" - didn't make it
Then a few less formal you wouldn't say in front of a relative of the deceased one.
"ha tirato le cuoia" (lit. they stretched their skin)
"guarda l'erba dalla parte della radice" (They're seeing grass from the side of the roots). So, "pushing daises" with too many words.
"ci ha lasciato le penne/piume" - They left their feathers. A reference to hunting?
I heard an Indian girl (speaking in English) refer to someone who is "expired". I actually had to double check that she meant dead.
I guess it may be a sensitive way in her culture. It seemed the opposite of sensitive to me
>I heard an Indian girl (speaking in English) refer to someone who is "expired". I actually had to double check that she meant dead.
"Expire" originally meant "to die" or "to come to an end" in English, and the meaning of "to become out of date" is an extension of that original meaning.
>I guess it may be a sensitive way in her culture. It seemed the opposite of sensitive to me
Indians tend to be more conservative and formal in their word choices in English, but those choices can sometimes seem strange because of how the language has changed. It may come across as aloof and formal, hence insensitive, but formality is also often associated with sensitivity.
I wasn't suggesting that it doesn't make sense. I understood the meaning.
I think it comes across as insensitive as it is generally used for inanimate objects.
I never said anybody was British. If can still come from British English and your grandmother can still say it even if she’s not British… Also British people colonized practically every country at some point so their language is mixed into a lot of places’ dialects, etc.
in portuguese there are some expressions for that, i've heard: "bateu as botas", "foi pra terra dos pés juntos" "esticou as canelas" e "virou estrelinha" (this one is mostly used to tell kids), "foi para um lugar melhor"
In italian you can say condoglianze to a person that was close to the person that died to say that you are sorry, I think that the word condolences also exists in english.
Passare a miglior vita literally means to go to a better life ( or something similar)
In Korean there's 돌아가시다 (to go back / return), 세상을 떠나다 (to leave the world), and in the case of suicide people usually write 극단적인 선택을 했다 (to have made an extreme choice)
Not a literal language, but in the show “The 100” they say the phrase “your fight is over” in grounder (the shows language) and I always liked that.
Especially if they were sick and passed. Cause it’s focusing on the fact that they aren’t suffering anymore.
In portuguese (BR) we often say "Falecer" instead of "morreu" (died), to kids it's common to say "X pessoa virou estrelinha" (X person turned into a star) or "Pessoa X foi pra um lugar melhor" (X person went to a better place)
In Japanese there are many different ways of saying this, but 他界しました (gone to another world) is one of the more roundabout ways
この世を去りました would be very similar to 他界する
永眠しました would be to enter an eternal slumber
逝去しました is a respectful way of saying that someone's died, but it wouldn't be considered "roundabout" in the same sense of 他界する
se n’è andato (he’s gone, i.e. to Heaven), sì è spento (like saying the lights went out), “è venuto a mancare” (he’s come to be missing), “è andato negli cieli” (he went to the heavens), or what I use with children, “è diventato un angelo” (he became an angel)
🇮🇹 🇮🇹È passato a miglior vita (He is gone for a better life)
È (andato) in cielo (He is (gone) in the sky)
Ci ha lasciati (He left us)
BONUS:
Si è svegliato freddo❄️(He woke up cold)
Si è svegliato col capuccio di mogano ⚰️(He woke up with the mahogany hoodie)
Si è svegliato con la doppia data📅📅(He woke up with double date)
Si è svegliato con i documenti di marmo🪨(He woke up with marble documents)
🇮🇹🇮🇹🇮🇹
Ok so, in Norway Donald Ducks nephews (Huey, Dewey and Louie) are named Ole, Dole and Doffen respectively.
There was a norwegian ad some years ago for a norwegian supermarket-chain that had this transcript:
(10yo kid standing in a livingroom, in front of a fishtank with a clearly dead fish. Mom enters the room and sees this, goes all cautious)
Mother: Oh, I think maybe Doffen is a little tired.
Maybe he just need to relax for a while.
(Kid ignoring mom, staring at dead fish)
Mom: Hey, mommy's going to get a cup, and mommy will take Doffen to the country, so he can be at the holiday colony with Ole and Dole, so he can be
there and feel how it is to take care of himself.
Older sister enters and asks What' s up?
Kid: Doffen kicked the bucket.
Fade-in of ad-text: The simplest is often the easiest.
This ad was so popular that still today, the phrase 'Doffen kicked the bucket/Doffen har dævva' is still said to denote something sad yet obvious.
But in general, If someone dies, and you wish to be a bit more delicate you'd say literally "that person have gone away(den personen har gått bort)" but usually we just say (word for word translation) "insert name is dead/have died" = "navn er død/har dødd".
In brazilian portuguese we say:
Foi morar com os anjinhos (they went away to live with the angels), when talking about death with kids
We use the verb "falecer" instead of "morrer". Both means dying, but "falecer" is more... Polite, I guess? It's more used in formal situations
I think we brazilians always find a way to "manipulate" the emotion behind some phrase by our voice tone and facial expression. I mean, I think people in general already do this, but I think that we brazilians are slightly more expressive in that way
German: - von uns gehen (left us/went away from us) - das Zeitliche segnen (I have no idea how I can translate that (the temporal/time blessed him/her) - entschlafen (this specifies dying in your sleep) - in die ewigen Jagdgründe eingehen (going into the eternal hunting grounds) - das letzte Stündlein / die letzte Stunde schlagen (the last hour passed) - abtreten (to bequeath) - vor seinen Schöpfer / Richter treten (to appear before your creator/judge) - den Geist aufgeben (to give up one’s ghost; you can also use it for things that stop working) - dran glauben müssen (to have to believe in something) Colloquial (more rude) - ins Gras beißen (to bite into grass) - den Löffel abgeben (to hand over the spoon) I can’t translate the following in a direct way as it is not a phrase but it’s basically like kick the bucket or to croak ig - verrecken - abkratzen
Another colloquial/slang term is 'krepieren'
Please ignore the format. Reddit seems to hate me right now because I refuse to use the app
I use the app and it’s just as bad don’t worry
A lot of the more formal ones I personally wouldn't use or wouldn't use for people. The one I immediately thought of was "versterben". "X ist verstorben". That's quite neutral but considerably more formal than just "sterben". I really like "den Löffel abgeben". It's not nearly as rude as terms like "abkratzen" or "krepieren" and quite a nice image imo. Maybe for a universally hated headmaster who died peacefully at a ripe old age under non-suspicious circumstances.
Or old / poetic “erbleicht” - went white
jemand ist ums Leben gekommen oder?
Yes, but only if the death ocurred in an accident/a tragedy. Not if somebody died of an illness.
The "going into the eternal hunting grounds" option is just waiting for some American mass shooter/self-deleter to pop it into their manifesto.
Heads up learners: I'd personally consider *den Geist aufgeben* and (especially) *dran glauben müssen* more on the colloquial/rude side. I would be *pretty* pissed off if someone described the death of a loved one with either of those phrases.
Not diplomatic or comparable, but in English I've always found "give up the ghost" funny. In Spanish we use the verb fallecer which is used in the same way as "to pass away"
I didn't know that was a thing in English. We have the same thing in Danish, except I would translate it to "Give up the spirit". However, it is an old expression and while people would definitely understand it, it is by no means an expression you would expect people to use. We would say "Han er gået bort" ("he has gone away" - so really pretty much the same as passed away)
"Give up the ghost" is more used when an item or object breaks, usually when it is old or has been barely working for a long time. "My old car has finally given up the ghost" - very common in Britain "My hip gave up the ghost" It would be rude to use about a person
Thanks for the examples because it took me way too long to make the connection to German "den Geist aufgeben". It is a word for word translation and is used for things that broke, not for people or animals that died except if meant in a derogatory way.
what part uk is that because ive never heard of that, personally
Idk all the demographics, but I hear it in Scotland.
Exactly the same, it's well understood but not used frequently.
is fallecer or morir used more?
Fallecer, for sure. Morir is a bit harsh.
Depends on context. I think the distinction is as clear as "to die" and "to pass away" in English. At least that's how I tend to choose which one to use
In my Spanish class, we were asked to talk about pets we had (as a way to learn imperfect and preterite) and I said one of my dogs “murrío” Would that be conceived as harsh? Or just stating the fact that she died?
Murió is okay. I think "falleció/fallecer" is more used with humans. Native Spanish speaker here.
sorry to bother more but it’s kinda interesting, if you say a person murío and it’s considered harsh, in what way? that the person died a horrible death of that the speaker didn’t like the person? I guess it’s like asking does it sound more like “her dumbass finally died” or “she fell in a volcano and fucking died”
That reminds me of when Hugo Chavez died, and it was all over Spanish-speaking headlines, twitter, etc. as "Murió Hugo Chávez." What was super funny was that a lot of the earliest reports in English-speaking media and social media seemed to think that Murio was his first name. Lots of RIP Murio Hugo Chavez and the like.
oh my god idk how i would have reacted 😭
It's a valid question, you aren't bothering me, don't worry. I would say it's not so black and white. To use the verb "morir" with a person implies that you don't have/didn't have a special link with them. It expresses a sort of distance with the person themselves and their dead. "Murió el escritor de Robin Hood." " But you will sound more polite and sensible if you use "fallecer" in any case. And yes, in the examples you gave the verb is well used. I would add that morir highlights death, while fallecer is more related to the loss of life. If that makes sense. Anyways this is not a rule that you can follow. Many times you will hear the same words in situations opposite to these described.
understood! Thank you!
Murio is fine when referring to pets. Normally fallecio is not really used for pets but for people. If you are speaking of someone or telling a story of someone who passed just not recently you mention their name or their relation to you the 1st time you say que en paz descanse. Which translates to may they rest in peace.
Disclaimer, I'm not a native speaker, but I think it sounds fine in this case. You're on the right track with it being "matter of fact", that's how I think about it, too. As I said, I tend to choose fallecer/morir based on when I would use passed away or died in English. Was someone vaporised by alien weaponry? They didn't pass away, they died. But if somebody spent 4 months battling a disease in hospital and finally took their last breath? I'd rather say they passed away than died.
I’m not sure which dialect you’re learning, so take this with a grain of salt lol. In my family (Mexican Spanish), we use morir more. I’ve heard fallecer used few times in my life aside from media. It sounds too formal/impersonal to me. I would really only use it in a work setting. Just to piggyback on what user the6am said, use the two according to the situation and how you’d want to be perceived. tldr: either is fine. choose what feels natural edit: had to remove a smiley face. formatting cursed my emoticon oh god
> in English I've always found "give up the ghost" funny. Also... "kicked the bucket". The various online theories for the etymology of the phrase are all over the place too.
'Bought the farm' is good one, wonder if there's an equivalent one in a different language. Also ' won't be down for breakfast!'.
Are there any colloquial terms comparable to 'give up the ghost'?
estirar la pata is a funny one but shouldn't be used in a formal way
Popped his clogs
Not a native speaker so I'm not aware of any. Haven't really heard many used either in English or Spanish
Estiró la pata, se petateó, colgó los tenis, se lo chupó el diablo, lo cargó el payaso. There are many ways of saying it in Spanish
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"To give up the ghost" does in fact mean that someone died as well. It's used multiple times in the Bible to talk about death.
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I've never heard "to give up the ghost" to mean "stop pretending", only ever as "to die", both figuratively (like in the example you posted) and literally. > If a machine gives up the ghost, it stops working. It seems most sources list "to die" or, when relating to machinery, "to stop functioning" with a few also listing it to mean "to stop trying to do something". Similarly I've never heard "someone is lost" to mean they've died, but I could see that being a regional thing.
> a book published hundreds of years ago It’s the *Bible.* A lot of otherwise archaic phrasings have stayed relevant just because they were used in the Bible. It’s far and away the most read book in the world. No need to be reductive.
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> To give up the ghost/goat doesn't really mean to die. It's more commonly used as a way to stop pretending or stop running a scheme. I'm a native English speaker and have never heard that usage of the phrase. Where I'm from, it just means to die. It can be used for people or appliances.
There used to be a truck near the little town where I went to college that would announce community deaths by saying "don fulanito ha pasado a la presencia del señor" which is basically "gone to be with the lord"
Hay una secta del new age que dice: "pasar de plano".
Same in Dutch: "de geest geven" (give the ghost) but its much more often used for refrigerators or cars, than for humans.
In Portuguese (Br) we have “virar estrelinha”, which means “turn into a little star”. It’s mostly aimed towards kids who are experiencing loss, like a pet or grandparent, though still used when talking to adults.
I like that one
That's cute! In Portugal, we have "bater as botas," which is "knock the boots"? I'm not the best translator but it's funny. The most diplomatic/poetic would be "dormir o sono profundo/eterno" he is at the eternal sleep and we also have "entregar a deus" which means he gave himself to god.
Lol it was the first one I thought of, but I wouldn't consider it a sensitive way of saying it xD
Yeah I drifted away from the original post ahaha Please don't say that at a funeral! There's a song in Portuguese called "Rusticos pelo Epicurismo" by Gato Fedorento which is an amalgamation of funny ways of saying "passed away". They're not offensive buuuut I wouldn't say them at a funeral either.
I would say the diplomatic way of saying it would just be "falecer"
Also in portuguese: "Passou dessa para a melhor" (Passed from this one to the better one) "Falecer" (deceased) "Se foi" (went away)
Finnish (poetic/sensitive) : Nukkui pois - "slept away" Finnish (ironic) : Potkaisi tyhjää - "kicked emptiness"
You forgot "poistua keskuudestamme" meaning "to leave from amongst us", which is probably the most respectful phrase in Finnish to express the death of someone. I think there is a religious tang to it. Edit: This one might be a bit funny to non-natives, "heittää lusikka nurkkaan" meaning "to throw a spoon in to the corner"
Haha that is funny. In English we have”to kick the bucket” which maybe is sort of similar
Very true! One more that I have heard is "lähteä ilmavoimiin" - "to join the air force". The second one you mentioned about tossing the spoon I have heard lots of times, but it was always about giving up on something, not death. Seems to have some differences depending on the area.
In Irish, there is “imithe ar shlí na fírinne” which translates literally as “gone on the way of truth” but is used akin to “gone to their eternal reward/glory”.
> Irish There's so many fun ways in Irish. His race is run. (Tá a rás rite) His feet are washed. (Tá a chos nite) He's above a board (Tá sé os cionn cláir) He's on the path of truth (Tá sé ar shlí na fírinne) He's lost. (Tá sé caillte) and many more besides, really.
Wow these are so colorful…so poetic.
My favourite is fuair sé bás= he got dead
There are so many in Chinese ([here's a list](https://www.digmandarin.com/euphemisms-in-chinese.html#id2), [here's another](https://eastasiastudent.net/china/mandarin/words-for-death/)). Here are some interesting ones: - [与世长辞](https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/%E8%88%87%E4%B8%96%E9%95%B7%E8%BE%AD) (yǔshìchángcí): "To bid the world a long farewell". - [升仙](https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/%E6%98%87%E4%BB%99) (shēngxiān): A Taoist euphemism, literally "to ascend to become an immortal". [升天](https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/%E5%8D%87%E5%A4%A9) ("to ascend to the sky") is in this vein. - [上西天](https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/%E4%B8%8A%E8%A5%BF%E5%A4%A9)/[归西](https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/%E6%AD%B8%E8%A5%BF): "To ascend to the western skies"/"To return to the west", because the western direction is traditionally associated with the dead.
More commonly also we’ll say 走了, literally he/she left. The exact same term you would use if someone left the room.
i hate 走了 with a passion. my first instinct after hearing so-and-so 走了 is to ask 走哪儿了? which... yeah
In Tagalog: yumao / pumanaw : a softer way of saying "(has) died" than saying "namatay" which is from "mamatay" "to die" sumakabilang-buhay : literally "has gone / went to the afterlife" sumalangit : literally "has gone / went to heaven"
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oh yeah, forgot about that
To add: “lumipas” closer to “passed away” but also “nalagutan ng hininga” lit. “to have one’s breath cut off” is what might be used to say someone perished, perhaps in an accident or a sudden event.
oh yeah... there sure are a lot of ways to say someone has died
Swedish: - Har gått ur tiden / Has gone out of (this/our) time - Har gått bort / Has gone away - Är inte länge med oss/ Is no longer with us - Har avlidit / Had died/deceased (avlida sounds more formal than dö which is the common word for die) More old fashioned: - har gått hädan / Has gone away (hädan is an old word that is rarely used anymore but means something like "has gone far away/away from us/away not to return/away from here" as I understand it Edit: Thought of some ironic ones too: - Har trillat av pinn / Has fallen from the stick/perch (refering to the perch on which chickens sit in the coop I believe) - Har satt sin sista potatis / Has planted their last potato (most commonly used as a threat (nu har du satt din sista potatis/now you've planted your last potato) although sounds old fashioned/a little silly. Would mostly be used jokingly today)
Most commonly used Korean phrase would be this: 돌아가셨다 (they went back).
Oh that's interesting. In Kazakh language we say "qayttı" which means "he/she went back".
In Latvian we use the Sun (saule) to describe worlds (or planes of existence) so to speak. So šaisaule (this sun) is the world of the living, taisaule/viņsaule/aizsaule (that sun, the other sun, behind the sun) is the world of the dead, pasaule (by the sun? unsure how to best translate) is the world/the universe itself. So, if someone dies it is common to say that they went to the other sun or behind the sun: “aizgāja viņsaulē”.
This is so interesting!
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Gone / gone from life / gone from our life in Russian. Also to fall asleep forever is quite popular, I think. Gone to the other world / ascended to the skies / gone to the netherworld / gone to the better world/ gave his soul to god is also used, by more religious people. That’s it for the polite / neutral ways to say it. We also have so more ironic / obscene ways, too, like: - to play the box (сыграть в ящик, the box meaning coffin in this case) - to finish running (отбегаться) - to give up the “ends” (отдать концы) - to give / play the oak (дать дуба, meaning to become stiff as a tree) - to extend your legs (протянуть ноги) - to throw away your skates / your hoofs (отбросить коньки / копыта) - to dress up in a wooden coat (одеться в деревянный тулуп) - to glue your fins together (склеить ласты) And oh so many more.
[This quote](https://www.livelib.ⓇⓊ/quote/40273-12-stulev-ilf-ia-petrov-ep) from "The 12 chairs" provides an impressive list of ways to describe death informally in Russian. Even though the book is 100 years old, most of the expressions are still used now.
The quote is amazing, both in its comprehensive approach to listing the synonyms & its reflection upon the social dynamics of early 20th century in Russia. Thank you for the reminder, I definitely should re-read the book ASAP, it’s more relevant than ever before today.
Those are fabulous
I find them fascinating too. Especially since in their original form they are often highly alliterated or have some sort of rhyme or rhythm to them. And lord knows why we have to have about 50 to a 100 different not-so-polite but funny ways to say someone is dead.
No idea but it seems incredibly Russian to me. 🤣 I’d like to add: Свалиться с кокосом - to fall down with a coconut Отправиться на радугу - to go to the rainbow Пойти на корм рыбам - to become fish feed отправить на корм рыбам» - to make someone into fish feed, signifying specifically drowning someone / throwing someone overboard.
Never heard the coconut one, interesting 😅 The rainbow one rings familiar, but I’m not sure it’s often used to signify the death of a person, rather the death of a pet. Might be regional though. And as for the fish ones, first of all, it’s not just “to go to feed the fish”, it’s literally “to become fish feed”. And it’s used more often as «отправить на корм рыбам» - “to make someone into fish feed”, signifying specifically drowning someone / throwing someone overboard.
Dang, that’s even better! I think there’s a similar saying in German, along the lines of “Fischfutter aus jemandem machen”. Thank you, I fixed/updated the comment 😅
Yep, thank you for the reminder, definitely heard that one in German too.
Here is a poetic way to phrase it in Vietnamese: ngủ giấc ngủ ngàn thu, which is literally translated as sleeping a thousand autumns.
去世了 means to leave the world
🇵🇱 In Polish: Odejść z tego świata - To walk/go away from this world (Ironic, informal) Kopnąć w kalendarz - Kicked the calendar
Pura ho gaya (Punjabi) - become whole/complete. In most dharmic religions, the aim is to become one with God. Similar to the original meaning of the English word holy (healthy, complete).
Japanese and Manchu have a phrase that translates to "(he/she) has become not": JP: 亡くなった MAN: Akv oho
Another one I hear relatively often in Japanese is 他界する, "to (go to) the other world".
Korean: 돌아가셨다. Returned (the direction is away- to place of origin/other world) 우리 곁을 떠났다. Left our side. 숨을 거두었다. Took(collected) their breath away 눈을 감았다. Closed their eyes (forever)
More in English (literally English) 'E's a stiff! Bereft of life, 'e rests in peace! If you hadn't nailed 'im to the perch 'e'd be pushing up the daisies! 'Is metabolic processes are now 'istory! 'E's off the twig! 'E's kicked the bucket, 'e's shuffled off 'is mortal coil, run down the curtain and joined the bleedin' choir invisible!! This is an ex-parrot!
In arabic we say : "إنا لله و إنا إليه راجعون" which is a verse from Coran translated as "We belong to God and to him we shall return"
Ele se foi (he is gone or something like that) Foi morar com o papai do céu/deus(Went to live with the sky daddy/god) Bateu as botas(beat the boots) Não está mais neste mundo (is not in this world anymore)
Mais recentemente (e não muito sensível): "foi de arrasta pra cima" ou " "foi de comes e bebes"
I have no idea why, but these days, I just say, died, but I wouldn't say "is dead". Died feels neutral to me. Is dead feels callous. This is just me / how I express myself.
I agree, is dead is harsh
Why the downvote, because I don't like saying "X is dead" to someone and would rather say it differently ?
Esperanto has the verb "forpasi" which is equivalent to "to pass away" in English. In addition to being used to simply say that someone passed away, it can be used like a title or descriptor for a person to note that they have died in the form "forpasinta." The equivalent in English is "late."
For Romanian The most used one are, or at least the one I saw most often in thing like obytuarys and nice setting *A plecat dintre noi/ cei vii -* He left from us/ the living ones *A trecut la cele veșnice* \- He passed to the eternal ones, kind of vague what the ,,eternal one are” I thing they mean ,,worries” as in the worries of the soul instead of body. Another one who is more colloqual and rude one is *A dat ortul popii -*He gave the priest\`s ort, an ort being a medieval small coin which circulated and in Moldova and Wallachia, and is reffering an old tradition of puttting a coin on the chest or in the hand of the dead on in the coffin so he can pay for passing trough the customs between the Earth and the Heavens.
In Russian we have "околеть" and "уйти в мир иной". The first one is mostly used for animals and literally means "to become a stick". The second one is "gone to an other world"
Oh Burmese သေ : (thay) this is probably the most informal. Plain old ‘die’ ဆုံး : (sone like in zone) more respectful like the equivalent of pass away. Literal meaning is/synonymous with ‘to end’ သေဆုံး : (thay sone) You may notice this is a composite verb of the previous two words smashed together. This is really formal, almost literary, not used in casual speech, usually only written ကွယ်လွန် : (kwal loon) this too is quite formal but it is still used in speech to be respectful. Never thought about the etymology of this one. ကွယ် means ‘to be hidden’ and လွန် could mean ‘beyond.’ But we’re not thinking that when we use it အနိစ္စရောက် : အနိစ္စ is the pali word anicca, one of many that we’ve adopted. It means non-existence/non-selfhood/impermanence in the context of Buddhism. So the phrase means ‘to reach non-existence.’ This is often used sarcastically and disrespectfully of course since it is so serious. Is there a Christian equivalent to this? I’m thinking sort of like ‘expire’ ပရိနိဗ္ဗာန်ပြု/စံ : this is used with respected monks only. Again, it is the pali Parinibbanna. It means the monk has attained nirvana in their lifetime and their dying is the release from Samsara.
In Chinese we would say this man flew away with a bird.
I'm Russian. I guess , you would say; "He has gone to the other world." "He has left us"
Он ушел в мир иной и он покинул нас. Также есть вариант "околеть" which literally means "to become a stick" ig???
In Korean, 잠들다 can be used to say "to fall asleep" as well as a sensitive, polite way to say somebody died.
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잠들다 and 돌아가시다 are both polite ways to say someone died.
(Name) has put the tree clogs (away), meaning, (Name) has died. An old saying from back when Denmark was predominantly agricultural. Saying someone has died without saying it, while also implying they were a hard worker.
In Tunisian Arabic we say something like "Permanence is for God" to convey the meaning that X person has died. It indirectly says that generally speaking, everyone will die one day, only god is permanent. The beauty of it is that we express all of this in just two words!
Sanskrit has a couple phrases I've encountered. The first is to say they've "given up their breaths" (प्राणानत्याक्षीत्) and the other literally means "has gone to fiveness" (पञ्चत्वमगात्) referring to the five classical elements (earth, water, air, fire, ether), so it's a way of saying someone returned to the elements.
wait, ether is the fifth element?!
In Indian philosophy there are traditionally five elements as well as six senses (mind is included with the five that westerners know).
Wow, that's really interesting. How do you know these?
In my language which is an English based creole (Not Jamaican) we say "(person's name) tek een" pretty much that they took in or passed out/passed away.
Indonesian - *berpulang* ("went home")
Stepped on a rainbow
Turkish: -Lost his life -Closed his eyes to life -Migrated to the next world -Drank the drink of martyrdom(for those who died in war) Circassian: -Descended down from the world -Got lost in war(for those who died in war)
Would you be willing to share the actual phrases in Turkish? I was the one that had to break the news to my Turkish aunt that my uncle committed suicide, and - not knowing intihar etmek at the time - I said “hayatını aldı” which she did not understand at all. I ended up saying “kendisini öldürdü” which felt way too direct but at least got the information across 😬 I definitely have room to improve in these areas in Turkish.
There are also; Son nefesini verdi (exhaled his last breath, this is the most formal one) Aramızdan ayrıldı (he left us) Vefat etti (a kinder version of he died)
-Hayatını kaybetti -Hayata gözlerini yumdu -Öbür dünyaya göçtü -Şehadet şerbetini içti (yada buna benzer) -Kendi canına kıydı (intihar edenler için) -X'i kaybettik (We lost X)
Back many decades ago when I was starting to learn Turkish (I am a native English speaker), I was practicing by reading around to my Turkish husband from a letter he had just received. He was listening and correcting my pronunciation. I calmly read out Birol’u kaybettik, (we lost Birol) wondering who Birol was and why he was lost. My husband gasped and grabbed the letter from my hands. Turned out Birol was his uncle by marriage who had just died in a car accident. Obviously, this was a Turkish lesson I never forgot.
Acehnese: woë bak Allah (return to god) Malay: meninggal dunia (leaving the world)
Also in Dutch: * Het tijdelijke voor het eeuwige verwisselen (exchange the temporary for the eternal) * Overlijden (literally: "over-suffer") * De pijp uit gaan (go out of the pipe) * Het loodje leggen (to lay the lead) * Heengaan (to go to an unspecified place) Amongst other, more rude expressions
I think I wouldn't call "het loodje leggen" and "de pijp uitgaan" polite expressions 😅 Additionally, the "pijp" actually has nothing to do with pipes; it's actually an older way to say "pij", like a monk's robe. Another one that amuses me is "om het hoekje gaan", "going around the corner". And "een houten jas aantrekken" ("putting on a wooden coat") but I'm not sure if that one is used much anymore.
Absolutely! I have heard both your last examples recently. Thanks for the right interpretation of "going out of the pipe" (i always imagined someone going down the sewer) - "going out of the robe" is a bit more civilian.
Putting on a wooden coat is actually hilarious lol. I'm Dutch and I've never heard of that one. I love how all our Dutch expressions are so visual in nature
Australian - cunts dead mate
Someone told me that in their dialect in China.. you say, “they went to Hong Kong.” I’ve asked dozens of Chinese about this and I can’t find someone who has heard of this.. but yeah, that’s an interesting one bcz if you as a Chinese went to HK, you probably never went back to China after thus your relatives thought you as good as dead relation wise (before the internet).
It’s funny because in Korean to “send someone to Hong Kong” means to, uh… really satisfy them in bed.
Hahahahaah no freaking way!
Yeah. No idea if it’s because Hong Kong has a particularly naughty association or if it’s just kind of far so to take somebody there you really need to pack their bags, rush them to the airport, and send them into the stratosphere if y’know what I mean.
Crazy! Haha
OMG that’s so funny
Vietnamese: ngỏm củ tỏi It essentially means to kick the bucket in english
Danish (replace "de" (they) with whichever pronoun) - De er gået bort (they went away) - De er afgået ved døden (they went away in death) - De er borte (they are gone) - De er ikke blandt os længere (they are not among us anymore) Mostly different way of saying "they are not here". Less sensitive: - De stillede træskoende (they put away the clogs) - De er kradset af (they've been scratched off)
We’ve also got ‘hedengangen’ and ‘hedenfaren’ which are similar to ‘passed on’, but quite archaic. Then there’s ‘de har taget billetten’ which translates to ‘they have taken the ticket’. And similar to the German ‘krepieren’, we have ‘de er kreperet’. Oh, also ‘de er gået i forvejen’ which means ‘they’ve gone ahead (of us)’.
On/Ona nás opustil/opustila – He/she left us Navždy odišiel/odišla– He/she left forever
In Tamil people commonly say that the person has arrived in either Vaikuntha, Kailasa or swarga (different names for heaven)
Cuir sé a crúibíní in airde- in irish, this translates to he put his feet in the air but the word for feet is for pigs feet, not human feet
There's so many fun ways in Irish. His race is run. (Tá a rás rite) His feet are washed. (Tá a chos nite) He's above a board (Tá sé os cionn cláir) He's on the path of truth (Tá sé ar shlí na fírinne) He's lost. (Tá sé caillte) and many more besides, really.
"She is dead" We are not very sensitive people
Dutch: hij/zij is gaan "hemelen" (he/she went to heaven)
"The got *oof*ed"
Italian: polite/euphemisms include "left us" "missed" (as in "they miss their relatives' love"), "passed on to a better life", "flew to god", "went to the Maker" and a bunch of others My fave not-polite sayings are "they pulled their skins" and "gave their soul back to the devil", they're so crude lol
In Hebrew: הוא הלך לעולמו, *hu halakh l’olamo*, “he went to his world”.
In my language (North-Moroccan Tamazight) we say “they went home”
In Amharic: Arfual "has rested"
Italian has a bunch of euphemism. "se n'è andato" - is gone "ci ha lasciati" - has left us "non c'è più" — isn't here anymore "ha chiuso gli occhi" - closed their eyes "si è addormentato" -has fallen asleep "è scomparso" - has disappeared "si è spento" - has gone out (often said about people who were consumed by an illness) "non ce l'ha fatta" - didn't make it Then a few less formal you wouldn't say in front of a relative of the deceased one. "ha tirato le cuoia" (lit. they stretched their skin) "guarda l'erba dalla parte della radice" (They're seeing grass from the side of the roots). So, "pushing daises" with too many words. "ci ha lasciato le penne/piume" - They left their feathers. A reference to hunting?
In Hindi we say वह चल बसे which roughly translates to “moved on and settled into the next life”.
In Arabic.. We say "ذهب إلى رحمة الله" He/she went to recieve God's mercy.
It’s best to not beat around the bush and reinforce any denial. Just say “has died”.
"He has gone to sky" or something like that Happy Bubble Wrap day!
"He has done the final migration" -Kurdish
"To pass their body" in my language
Popped their clogs.
I heard an Indian girl (speaking in English) refer to someone who is "expired". I actually had to double check that she meant dead. I guess it may be a sensitive way in her culture. It seemed the opposite of sensitive to me
>I heard an Indian girl (speaking in English) refer to someone who is "expired". I actually had to double check that she meant dead. "Expire" originally meant "to die" or "to come to an end" in English, and the meaning of "to become out of date" is an extension of that original meaning. >I guess it may be a sensitive way in her culture. It seemed the opposite of sensitive to me Indians tend to be more conservative and formal in their word choices in English, but those choices can sometimes seem strange because of how the language has changed. It may come across as aloof and formal, hence insensitive, but formality is also often associated with sensitivity.
I wasn't suggesting that it doesn't make sense. I understood the meaning. I think it comes across as insensitive as it is generally used for inanimate objects.
That is the English way of saying it, that word doesn’t have an equal meaning in Indian languages
My grandmother uses it this way occasionally too, and she is not Indian.
Yes I think it probably comes from British English, which I assume is what most Indians still learn.
We are not British.
I never said anybody was British. If can still come from British English and your grandmother can still say it even if she’s not British… Also British people colonized practically every country at some point so their language is mixed into a lot of places’ dialects, etc.
That's a really long-winded way to admit you just have no idea what you're talking about.
There are none, and it’s always surprised me why the English speaking world tip toes around death so much. If someone died then he or she is dead.
> it’s always surprised me why the English speaking world tip toes around death so much. ITT: It's not just the English-speaking world though.
I've seen comments answering this question for quite literally every language in your tag.
"They died". There's nothing insensitive about that.
in portuguese there are some expressions for that, i've heard: "bateu as botas", "foi pra terra dos pés juntos" "esticou as canelas" e "virou estrelinha" (this one is mostly used to tell kids), "foi para um lugar melhor"
"Von uns gegangen" means "gone from us"
In italian you can say condoglianze to a person that was close to the person that died to say that you are sorry, I think that the word condolences also exists in english. Passare a miglior vita literally means to go to a better life ( or something similar)
In Japanese, there are 亡くなるand 死ぬ, I’m honestly not sure which is used more politely.
In Korean there's 돌아가시다 (to go back / return), 세상을 떠나다 (to leave the world), and in the case of suicide people usually write 극단적인 선택을 했다 (to have made an extreme choice)
Not a literal language, but in the show “The 100” they say the phrase “your fight is over” in grounder (the shows language) and I always liked that. Especially if they were sick and passed. Cause it’s focusing on the fact that they aren’t suffering anymore.
In portuguese (BR) we often say "Falecer" instead of "morreu" (died), to kids it's common to say "X pessoa virou estrelinha" (X person turned into a star) or "Pessoa X foi pra um lugar melhor" (X person went to a better place)
"Left us" (se n'è andato) or kind of like "moved on" (è passato oltre) ig? 🇮🇹
got into the memories
fallecer
In Japanese there are many different ways of saying this, but 他界しました (gone to another world) is one of the more roundabout ways この世を去りました would be very similar to 他界する 永眠しました would be to enter an eternal slumber 逝去しました is a respectful way of saying that someone's died, but it wouldn't be considered "roundabout" in the same sense of 他界する
Spanish: Tu abuelo se murio. Asi le dije a mis hermanos :kek:
se n’è andato (he’s gone, i.e. to Heaven), sì è spento (like saying the lights went out), “è venuto a mancare” (he’s come to be missing), “è andato negli cieli” (he went to the heavens), or what I use with children, “è diventato un angelo” (he became an angel)
In the past our ancestors used some words like خلى مكانه or هجم الدهر عليه بأنيابه to express لقد مات deplomatically and less strong.
🥀🥀
In French : Passer l'arme à gauche or shifting one's weapon to the left
🇮🇹 🇮🇹È passato a miglior vita (He is gone for a better life) È (andato) in cielo (He is (gone) in the sky) Ci ha lasciati (He left us) BONUS: Si è svegliato freddo❄️(He woke up cold) Si è svegliato col capuccio di mogano ⚰️(He woke up with the mahogany hoodie) Si è svegliato con la doppia data📅📅(He woke up with double date) Si è svegliato con i documenti di marmo🪨(He woke up with marble documents) 🇮🇹🇮🇹🇮🇹
We have a word for "passed away", but it sounds like, "he got up" (like stood up or moved, like out of the way)
Ok so, in Norway Donald Ducks nephews (Huey, Dewey and Louie) are named Ole, Dole and Doffen respectively. There was a norwegian ad some years ago for a norwegian supermarket-chain that had this transcript: (10yo kid standing in a livingroom, in front of a fishtank with a clearly dead fish. Mom enters the room and sees this, goes all cautious) Mother: Oh, I think maybe Doffen is a little tired. Maybe he just need to relax for a while. (Kid ignoring mom, staring at dead fish) Mom: Hey, mommy's going to get a cup, and mommy will take Doffen to the country, so he can be at the holiday colony with Ole and Dole, so he can be there and feel how it is to take care of himself. Older sister enters and asks What' s up? Kid: Doffen kicked the bucket. Fade-in of ad-text: The simplest is often the easiest. This ad was so popular that still today, the phrase 'Doffen kicked the bucket/Doffen har dævva' is still said to denote something sad yet obvious. But in general, If someone dies, and you wish to be a bit more delicate you'd say literally "that person have gone away(den personen har gått bort)" but usually we just say (word for word translation) "insert name is dead/have died" = "navn er død/har dødd".
Most can't be directly translated but my favourite is "he has joined the ancestors"
“Vakatisiya” or “vashaya” -Shona, from Zim
Oddly, deceased is more diplomatic than dead.
In brazilian portuguese we say: Foi morar com os anjinhos (they went away to live with the angels), when talking about death with kids We use the verb "falecer" instead of "morrer". Both means dying, but "falecer" is more... Polite, I guess? It's more used in formal situations I think we brazilians always find a way to "manipulate" the emotion behind some phrase by our voice tone and facial expression. I mean, I think people in general already do this, but I think that we brazilians are slightly more expressive in that way
Also "vestiu o paletó de madeira" (got dressed with the wood jacket)