stirbt

Stirbt is the third-person singular present tense form of the German verb sterben, meaning to die. It is used with he, she, or it as the subject (for example, Er stirbt). As a present tense form, it can appear in everyday statements, news reports, or narrative contexts describing dying events.

Etymology and cognates: The verb sterben originates from the Germanic language family and has cognates in several West Germanic languages, such as Dutch sterven and Old High German sterban. The present tense forms show regular German conjugation patterns for strong verbs, with a stem change in the second and third person forms (du stirbst, er/sie/es stirbt).

Conjugation (present, past, and perfect, in brief):

- Present: ich sterbe, du stirbst, er/sie/es stirbt, wir sterben, ihr sterbt, sie sterben.

- Simple past (Präteritum): ich starb, du starbst, er/sie/es starb, wir starben, ihr too starbt, sie starben.

- Present perfect (Perfekt): ich bin gestorben, du bist gestorben, er ist gestorben, wir sind gestorben, ihr seid gestorben, sie sind gestorben.

The past participle is gestorben, and sterben uses the auxiliary sein in the perfect.

Usage notes: Stirbt is intransitive and denotes the act of dying. It is commonly used in obituaries, medical reporting, and literary narration. The perfect form ist gestorben emphasizes the completion of the event, while the simple past starb is often used in narrative writing.

See also: sterben, Tod, obituary conventions in German-language texts.