Comment on what’s the difference between “he died” and “he’s dead”?

TehBamski@lemmy.world ⁨10⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

• Yaky@slrpnk.net ⁨10⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

  Interesting, as an ESL speaker of US English (for several decades nonetheless) the timing sounds the reverse for me:

  “I thought he died” seems to imply the death was recent, and “I thought he was dead” implies the death happened some time ago.

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  • Initiateofthevoid@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨10⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    Native speaker here, the OP you are responding to is incorrect.

    “Dead” isn’t a verb and so it does not have past or future tenses. It is an adjective describing a state of existence.

    Died and dying are tenses of the verb die.

    “He died, I am dying, now, I die.”

    “He is dead, I will be dead, I am dead.”

    I agree with your interpretation, but it’s not a hard rule - “I thought he was dead” and “I thought he died” are both grammatically correct regardless of how long ago the death happened, but the latter sounds more specific to me.

    “I thought he was dead” sounds like “I haven’t heard about him in awhile, I assumed he was not alive anymore”

    But “I thought he died” sounds like “I thought he specifically died in that fire three years ago.”

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