亡くなる

1. Origins, structure, and basic meaning

• Structure: 亡くなる(なくなる) is a gentler way to refer to a person's death.
• Basic usage: The person who died is the subject, as in 亡くなった.

2. Common pitfalls and similar expressions

• Conjugation
  • Although it ends in る, its forms include 亡くなります・亡くなって・亡くなった.
• The same spoken form
  • The sound なくなる does not always refer to death. お金がなくなる means that money runs out or is gone, unlike 亡くなる in the death sense.