English softens hard truths with euphemisms. Which sentence means the same as 'He passed away last year'?

"He died last year" carries the exact same core meaning as "he passed away last year" — both state that the person's life ended. "Pass away" is a euphemism, a softer, more comforting way of expressing something difficult, which is why English (like most languages) has developed many gentler alternatives to blunt words about death.

"He left last year" implies the person simply went somewhere else, not that he died, so it changes the meaning entirely. "He passed by" describes walking past a location, a completely different action that happens to share the word "passed."

English has a rich collection of death euphemisms beyond "pass away," including "lost," "gone," and "no longer with us," reflecting a broader human tendency across cultures to soften language around loss, illness, and other painful topics.