Episode 66 How To Talk About Death In English And What To Say When Someone Dies

With the Queen's funeral yesterday I decided this might be the best time for us to talk about death. It's a depressing subject but something that touches us all and I don't want you to be stranded with no vocabulary or confused about what people are talking about. In English we have a lot of euphemisms for death. We don't like using the actual word and we don't like talking about it either so we have lots of other ways to say it. Tomorrow we'll be talking about the changes the UK can expect with our new King. For people She passed away. We lost her. She's gone to heaven. She's gone to be with Grandpa. She's no longer with us. She left us. For Pets We had to put him to sleep. We had to put him down. We had to let him go. What can you say? 'I'm sorry for your loss.' 'I'm sorry for your loss, let me know if there's anything I can do.' 'My condolences.' 'My sympathies.' Additional Vocabulary Euphemism - a word or phrase that we use to replace another word, it shares the same meaning but might not be as clear or obvious. Stiff upper lip - idiom - often used to describe British people and our preference not to show (or often appear to have) emotions. Euthanasia - the process of killing a person or animal who is in pain or suffering, a decision never taken lightly or easily but which is fairly common regarding pets who might get very ill as they get older.