Learn how to use the verb "Die"
Unlock Lesson Notes and Transcripts for every single lesson. Sign Up for a Free Lifetime Account and Get 7 Days of Premium Access.
| Hi, everybody. Welcome back to Know Your Verbs. My name is Alisha and in this episode, we're going to talk about the verb, "die." Okay. Let's begin with the basic definition of this verb. The basic definition of the verb "die" is to stop living or to stop existing. Examples, "She died yesterday." "Doctors say he might die within a year." |
| Let's look at the conjugations for this verb. Present, "die," "dies." Past, "died." Past participle, "died." Progressive, "dying." |
| Now, let's talk about some additional meanings for this verb. The first additional meaning for this lesson is to disappear gradually. Some examples, "The noise died down a short while after the concert ended." "My interest in eating meat died after I watched a documentary." In both of these examples, something gradually decreased. In the first example sentence, after a concert ended, the noise died down. Actually, we can say "died down," like it sounds like it was up here. Because we're using the word "down" there, it sounds like the volume was up here, maybe, and it gradually came down. "The noise died" is okay, like the noise died after, but, "the noise died down" sounds even more gradual. This is like an extra variation on this meaning. |
| In the second example sentence, we saw "My interest in eating meat died after I watched a documentary." It's like, "Oh, I saw this documentary and my desire to eat meat went down quickly. Like, it died, it stopped, it ceased." That sounds like, "I saw this documentary and I was done wanting to eat meat." It means "to go away" or "to disappear." Especially, with "down," like to "die down," that sounds extra gradual. |
| Okay, good. Let's talk about the next one. Okay. The second additional meaning for today's lesson is "to stop working," like a machine or a computer. Examples, "My car is dying on the side of the road." "Oh, no. My phone battery died." Oh, no. I have a graphic for this. "Oh, no. My phone battery died." It's not true. All right. Anyway, in both of these examples, we used "die" to mean that some machine or some device stopped working, usually, because it ran out of power or because there's some technical malfunction. In the first example, "My car is dying on the side of the road," there could be a number of reasons why the car is dying. Maybe it's out of gas, maybe there's a technical problem, maybe it's just--I don't know, something else has gone wrong. We don't know. But, for whatever reason, the car is not moving or the car is not functioning correctly. "The car is dying on the side of the road." |
| In the second example, a very common one, "Oh, no. My phone battery died." In the past tense, it means my phone ran out of battery. My phone ran out of power, out of energy. We say, "My phone died." We don't even need to say "battery," just "My phone died" is perfect. That's a very natural sentence. "Oh, no. My phone died." Those are a couple additional meanings. Excellent. |
| Now, let's go on to some variations for the verb, "die." The first variation I want to talk about is to die of an emotion or to die of a feeling. This is an expression we use when we feel that thing, that emotion, that sensation, very strongly, so strongly we feel like we could die of or we can also say die from that thing. Examples, "I could die of happiness," and, "I'm dying of hunger." In the first example, "I could die of happiness," that's an example where we could substitute "of" for "from." "I could die from happiness." That's also okay. We could say, "I could die of embarrassment," or, "I could die from embarrassment, or sadness, or loneliness." Something like that. It's an emotion we feel so strongly, we feel like we could die because of it. |
| In the second example sentence, I used the progressive. "I'm dying of hunger." It means I'm so hungry, I feel like I could die. I'm using the progressive tense which means I feel this way now. I'm dying now because I'm so hungry. Dying of hunger means at this moment, you are dying, well, not literally but you are so hungry you feel like you're dying. I'm dying. |
| All right. Let's go on to the next thing. Let's go on to the next variation. The next variation is "to be dying." "To" plus verb. To be dying to do something. Examples, to be dying to do something means you have a very, very strong desire to do that thing. You really, really want to do this thing. Examples of that. "I'm dying to see that movie." "He's dying to go home." In both of these sentences, you see I'm using the infinitive form of the verb after "dying." "He's dying to," "She's dying to," "I'm dying to do something." We need to use "to" plus the verb. That's the infinitive form of the verb. Dying to do that thing means the speaker or the subject really, really wants to do that action, that verb. That's what it means, to be dying to do something. You're not actually dying, it just means you have a strong desire to do that thing. All right, good. |
| Those are a few variations, a couple of additional meanings. I hope that you picked up some new ways to use the verb, "die." If you have any questions or comments, or if you know a different way to use the verb, "die," or if you just would like to try to make an example sentence, please feel free to do so in the comment section of this video. Of course, don't forget to give us a thumbs up if you liked the video. Subscribe to our channel if you have not already and check us out at EnglishClass101.com for some other good study resources. Thanks very much for watching this episode of Know Your Verbs and we'll see you again soon. Bye. |
Comments
Hide