Dave's ESL Cafe's Student Discussion Forums

[abby897]

Dear teachers

I don't know how to use the words "dead", "die", "died", and "dying" exactly. These four words use a lot in different situations.

Is that just the grammar problem or sometimes it is different in daily conversation? (I mean informal usage.)

Would you tell me how to use the words and give me some examples please?
Thank you so much.

Best wishes,
Abby

[redset]

Die is a verb, died is the past simple and past participle, dying is the continuous form (or gerund) and dead is an adjective. If you have a plant that's dying you might need to water it. If you don't, it might die! Then it will be dead. "Where's your plant?" 'It died last week.'

That's the basic grammar of the literal meaning of die - there are a lot of informal uses though. Here are some examples:

'I'm dying to meet her.' (I really want to meet her)
'I'm dying for a drink!' (I really want a drink)
'The engine's dead.' (The engine won't work (it can't actually die of course!))
'This is dead stupid.' (This is very stupid - possible just British English and not that widely used anymore)
'It was so embarrassing, I could have died' (I didn't want to be in that situation anymore, dying would have been a relief)
'His jokes were awful, he died on stage' (a comedian on stage had a very embarrassing performance - the atmosphere died)

Die is also one of these (plural dice):


And there are a few other meanings. Is there anything specific you weren't sure about?

[abby897]

Dear teachers:

The examples did help me understand these four words more! I thought I might not use the informal terms a lot, so sometimes I got stock in how to use the words.

I'm really appreciated from your reply.
Thanks a lot!!!!!

Sincerely,
Abby