Now that Halloween approaches let’s talk about a common mistake related to this festivity: the confusion between ‘died-dead-death’. DIE is the verb, as in: Nobody wants to die. DIED is the past tense of the verb, which is regular, as in: Tom died in 1990. DEAD is the adjective that describes the state of a person or animal, as in: The hamster doesn’t move. I’m afraid it is dead. DEATH is the noun, as in: He is not afraid of death.