Context: a teacher of mine passed away last night who was close friends with another teacher of mine in Japan. I will need to phone them tonight and break the news, but I’m not sure if there’s an etiquette to it. I know that ご愁傷様です (goshuushousama desu) is used to express condolences, but I don’t know if that fits here given that the deceased isn’t family and that both of us were reasonably close to him (admittedly, my Japanese teacher was closer to him than I was). I’m also unsure of what verb to use – 死ぬ seems “blunt” and I don’t know if there’s a better euphemism similar to “pass away” in English.
If it makes a difference, both teachers are substantially older than I am and were good friends. Any advice is appreciated.
8 comments
なくなりました
may be a polite way to say someone passed away
Use 亡(な)くなる instead of 死ぬ.
So you can say 「○○先生はお亡くなりになりました。」
If you want yo say you heard the news from someone else, you can say 「○○さんによると、○○先生はお亡くなりになったそうです。」
Here are some examples: https://www.osohshiki.jp/column/article/45/
I feel a need to say this, I’m sorry for your loss.
When I found my MIL dead (suddenly, no illness), my wife said she couldn’t tell her older brother, so I took about 10 sec to gather myself and called him. What I came up with in that moment was 「〇〇はこんや、えいえんのねむりにはいりました。」Not sure I had done it well, but he later specifically thanked me for the way I broke the news, FWIW.
We’re sorry for your loss!
I’d probably use 亡くなる instead of 死ぬ. I’m sorry for your loss.
If it is a close friend or family member of yours, a polite way to say it would be 他界します, which essentially means to pass on to the next world. I used this word when talking about my father passing.