Back in 1988 or so I was in Moscow at «Дом книги» with a former student. He was thirsty. I asked a saleswoman whether there was any place he could get a drink of water. I figured the woman would say to one of her coworkers something like «Покажи нашему гостю, где попить» “Show our guest where to get a drink.” Instead she said, «Надь, напои этого мальчика» “Nadya, water this boy.”

Wow, talk about a learning moment. Once again a Russian had shown me her ability to compress what was a multiword phrase in English into a single Russian verb: поить/напоить. The verb means “to give [something] [to someone] to drink,” and it's conjugated like this:

The person or animal that will be drinking shows up in the accusative case. The thing you give them to drink shows up in the instrumental case:

Note: standard dictionaries describe the stress pattern of this verb as either shifting-stress or end-stressed. All the native speakers I have consulted prefer the shifting stress pattern shown here.

Last week we discussed the four verbs most commonly used to mean “to die” in Russian: умирать/умереть, погибать/погибнуть, скончаться, and сдыхать/сдохнуть. If you have mastered those, you are able to express pretty well all the most standard shades of meaning. However…

Every Russian will also know a few more synonymous verbs like издыхать/издохнуть, which is used when an animal dies, i.e., it means the same thing as сдыхать/сдохнуть and is conjugated the same way, but it has a more folksy, less educated sound to it. It doesn't have the status of “literary language” as сдыхать/сдохнуть does.

Then there is the imperfective дохнуть, which means the same thing, but is again conversational, not part of the literary language. (Note this is distinct from the verb дохнуть, which means something else entirely.) From дохнуть is derived the verb pair подыхать/подохнуть, which means the same thing.

Then there is околевать/околеть. This word is part of the literary language, and it means that an animal has died. For some people the verb implies that the corpse is already growing cold or stiff, and for some people it implies dying of cold.

Then there is the imperfective verb гибнуть, which means “to perish, die in tragic circumstances” and applies to people.

Then there is the imperfective verb мереть, which is conversational or low-style and can be used when people die. It's used in the incredibly wide-spread phrase «мрут, как мухи» “they are dying like flies.”

Last but not least, there is помирать/помереть, which nowadays is folksy, uneducated speech, and it can be used when people die. In the 19th century, though, this was just a normal word for “to die,” so you can find it in classic Russian literature without any sense of folksiness.

That gives us at least eight different ways to say “Our cow died.”

Let's discuss the differences:

There is one more significant word for “to die,” which is погибать/погибнуть. It means “to perish” and communicates the idea that the death was tragic. Sometimes it seems to add the idea of nobility or heroism. It is conjugated like this:

Here are some sample sentences:

When an animal dies, the word Russians usually use is сдыхать/сдонуть, which conjugates like this:

Sample sentences:

Since the verb implies dying like an animal, it is sometimes used in insults and vulgar expressions.

When people are grieving it feels harsh to use the word умирать/умереть for “to die.” In those contexts it's better to use the verb “to pass away,” which in Russian is скончаться. It only exists in the perfective with that prefix, but кончаться/кончиться can have roughly the same meaning as well.

Sample sentences:

That last quote is from a site that collects romantic text messages. Romantic. Hm. My first reaction was to think that it's more like horny and desperate text messages. But then I thought again. The truth is that we never know when those we love will die. If we don't show our love to them now, we might never have a chance again. Choose today to show love to those around you.