死にます（しにます、shinimasu）
- to die

The Japanese verb 死にます しにます means "to die" or "will die." It describes the act of ceasing to live, the end of life. This verb is in the polite form, reflecting a level of formality appropriate for most situations. It implies a state of being no longer alive.

⚫︎父は病気で死にました。 Translation: My father died of illness. ⚫︎その猫は交通事故で死にます。 Translation: That cat will die in a traffic accident. ⚫︎彼は戦争で死ぬことを恐れていた。 Translation: He was afraid of dying in the war. (Here the non-polite form 死ぬ is used in a clause.)

⚫︎死にます しにます is used in polite conversation. ⚫︎It is used to describe the death of people, animals, and sometimes even plants or other entities. ⚫︎The context is very important. Often, the circumstances surrounding the death are included in the sentence. ⚫︎The plain form is 死ぬ. ⚫︎Other conjugations of 死にます (e.g. 死にました, 死なない, 死ねば,死ぬ) are used depending on the tense, negation, or conditional context.

⚫︎The verb is typically written as 死にます. ⚫︎The kanji is 死 (shi), meaning "death," and the hiragana is にます にます, which is the polite conjugation of the verb. ⚫︎There is no other way to write the word in common usage. ⚫︎The okurigana (the suffix hiragana) is consistent: にます にます.

⚫︎亡くなる (nakunaru) - "to pass away" (a more polite way to say "to die," often used for people). ⚫︎逝く (yuku) - "to pass away" (similar to 亡くなる, often used for people). ⚫︎果てる (hateru) - "to end," "to die" (can be used for life, but also other situations).

⚫︎生きる (ikiru) - "to live." ⚫︎生まれる (umareru) - "to be born."

祖母は昨年、老衰で死にました。 ・Translation: My grandmother died of old age last year. ・Explanation: This sentence uses 死にました to describe the grandmother's death, specifying the cause (old age) and the time (last year).

もしあの時、病院に行かなかったら、彼は死んでいたかもしれません。 ・Translation: If he hadn't gone to the hospital at that time, he might have died. ・Explanation: This sentence uses the potential form of the verb 死ぬ (死んでいた) to suggest what might have happened. It includes a conditional clause, which is very common when discussing the idea of 死ぬ.

The kanji 死 (shi) combines a person (匕) who is disappearing (歹). The verb is a native Japanese word, where the morpheme し (shi) represents "death," and the verb structure にます represents a state of action.