What is んでいます and why use it?


Me and my friend were talking about death and the universe and ect. But I
tried to write:

> 瀬間は死でした。

He then corrected me by writing

> 瀬間は死んでいます。

I don't understand the ～んでいます at the end of the sentence. Also what's wrong
with what I originally said? My friend can't really give me a good answer to
why I should write the second one.




「んでいます」 is not a single unit, you're splitting the word in the wrong place.

# How to break down 死んでいます

「死んで」 is the _-te_ form of 「死ぬ」. You then connect that to 「いる」 (or if you're
being polite, 「います」). Together, they form the _-te-iru_ form of 「死ぬ」: 「死んでいる」

# The _-te-iru_ form

The _-te-iru_ form of a verb has multiple meanings, and depending on the type
of verb, those meanings differ. In the case of 「死ぬ」 (which is a state-change
verb)...

> 死んでいる  
>  "is dead" (stative reading)  
>  "are dying" (iterative meaning) (like, multiple different things are dying)

So, 「瀬間は死んでいます。」 unambiguously means "瀬間 is dead.", given the understanding
that 「瀬間」 is a person's name (preventing the iterative meaning, since that
would be a singular subject). On the other hand, if 「瀬間」 were the name of a
species or something, then it'd likely be the iterative meaning.

# What you said

You said 「瀬間は死でした。」, which means something like "瀬間 was death." In your
sentence, 「でした」 is the polite past-tense copula, and 「死」 is the noun for
"death". I can't think of any time you'd want to say this outside of fiction.
That said, your sentence is at least grammatical.




「んでいます」 is not a single unit, you're splitting the word in the wrong place.

# How to break down 死んでいます

「死んで」 is the _-te_ form of 「死ぬ」. You then connect that to 「いる」 (or if you're
being polite, 「います」). Together, they form the _-te-iru_ form of 「死ぬ」: 「死んでいる」

# The _-te-iru_ form

The _-te-iru_ form of a verb has multiple meanings, and depending on the type
of verb, those meanings differ. In the case of 「死ぬ」 (which is a state-change
verb)...

> 死んでいる  
>  "is dead" (stative reading)  
>  "are dying" (iterative meaning) (like, multiple different things are dying)

So, 「瀬間は死んでいます。」 unambiguously means "瀬間 is dead.", given the understanding
that 「瀬間」 is a person's name (preventing the iterative meaning, since that
would be a singular subject). On the other hand, if 「瀬間」 were the name of a
species or something, then it'd likely be the iterative meaning.

# What you said

You said 「瀬間は死でした。」, which means something like "瀬間 was death." In your
sentence, 「でした」 is the polite past-tense copula, and 「死」 is the noun for
"death". I can't think of any time you'd want to say this outside of fiction.
That said, your sentence is at least grammatical.

