English question

If we are talking about a person:

1) Means he is still alive but suffering from terminal illness or injury. It may be accurate in the situation but is a rather cold statement that would have to used with great care and sensitivity.

For example, a nurse may say it to a colleague about one of their patients, but not (I hope!) directly to the loved ones at the bed-side.

......

2) That would normally be used of surviving illness or injuries that could have killed him. He might live for decades yet, but you'd need the rest of the text, or be there in person, to know the outlook.

Typically it might used to comfort friends and relatives who genuinely all thought he would not survive: "He is not dying. He will live, but might not recover fully".

Even better, the first sentence would be omitted: "He will recover, but might not fully."

Thanks, everyone. I posted this question on a Facebook group and I got very insightful feedback from native speakers:

Ans. (K.M UK English)
(1) He is still alive, but not for much longer.
(2) He is alive, and will remain alive indefinitely.

Ans. (B.K US English)
(1) He is dying= To the best of my knowledge, he is in the process of dying, and will likely die soon, but he has not died yet.
(2) He is not dying = He is not in the process of dying because either:
(a) He has not begun it. = He's fine, or at least not in imminent danger.
or
(b) He has already completed it. = He's dead.

1. He is alive, but not for much longer.
2. He is alive, and will continue to be so for an indeterminate amount of time.

(1) implies he is dying but not dead yet. Its more negative.

(2) implies hes either completely fine or recovering.

In the first it is certain that he is still alive. In the second he could be already dead although most English speakers would assume that he is alive and not critically ill. It depends on the context.

Are we actually doing your college course work for you....? 🤔

Possibly we would find out five minutes later.

😀

The first statement refers to the transitory nature of the physical world. The second statement illustrates the atemporal nature of the spirit world

Yawn...work it out yourself. It is really not that difficult.

Schrodenger's human?