... is something I want to put on my armor. It's intended to be sort of an homage to Ghost in the Shell where Batou was asked by his Tachikoma: "Say Batou... have you ever died?"
However, I'm not a native English speaker and so I'd like to know if this would be correct with regards to the spelling and the meaning.

Cheers,
Stefan

Looks good to me hon

I'd say it depends on how you write it. Acceptable options would be:

"Have you ever died before?"

"Ever die before?"

Now if you want to fuse that with a good Colonial Marine in-joke;

"Have you ever died properly?"

"Have you ever died before?"
was the initial idea. However, the phrase seemed too long to get it on a glance.

"Ever die before?" - without the "d"?

I like the idea with "properly" but that'll make it even longer....

Cheers,
Stefan

ooooooooh like it

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impressive...most impressive

Yes, this is considered as proper for oration, but not terribly good grammar.

A substitute? "Ever die properly?"

Just chiming in to say I really like this! Two thumbs up from this Yank.

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CPL Sean Maio A01/TQ2.0.72156E1
Public Relations Division (Temporary Cross-Assignment)
M-56 Smartgun Operator, A/3Btn, II CMEF, USS Sephora

While not terribly good grammar, it is perfectly acceptable as a one liner, take for instance the following:

Wanna die?

It certainly is a hell of a lot cooler than "Would you like to die?" or "Do you want to die?" I myself prefer just "Ever die before?" as it is chilling and just makes more sense over "Ever die properly?"


Collin "Ripper714"

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Without the second "d" it sounds wrong to me, but that might just be me.

_________________
The Colony - My collection and current prop projects.
My YouTube Videos

I think your initial idea was fine mate, I would just go with that


Cheers

Darren

Got Death?

THAT, I like.

Unless there's difference in North American and British parlance for this type of grammatical accord, I'm rather sure that you'll need the "d" suffix if you add "Have" at the beginning of your sentence.

Ever walk before?
Have you ever walked before?

Ever punch before?
Have you ever punched before?

Ever die before?
Have you ever died before?

Ever Spatlle before?
Have you ever Spatlled before?

Hmm,
it's more likely for me to go to the UK - so I'll probably go with "died".
But how about:

"GOT KILLED BEFORE?"

(Some might like "GOT KILLED BEFORE!" even more ...)

Cheers,
Stefan

Been killed before?

_________________
The Colony - My collection and current prop projects.
My YouTube Videos

Hmm,ok. However, there's this classic conversation from Fallout:



Vault Dweller: How did you survive?
Harold: Didn't. Got killed.

Cheers,
Stefan

At the end of the day it's graffitti- it doesn't really need to be grammatically accurate; it just has to sound cool.

For instance on the back of my PIG battery I have written:

"When I turn around I'm gonna (effin) kill you!"

"Gonna" is terribly bad grammar; it is not a word at all. It is slang for "going to".

So I say go with your preference on this one.

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I told you I'd shoot, but you didn't believe me! WHY DIDN'T YOU BELIEVE ME!?!

Slang is perfectly ok.
I just want to make sure it's not outright wrong (even for slang) or has a totally differend meaning....

Cheers,
Stefan

"Get rich or try dying" or something alike

I'm a bit of a grammar Nazi (although I do try to hold it back a lot recently), but I don't mind slang words like 'gonna'. It's the other frequent 'real' errors that get me grinding my teeth.

"You're gonna die!" is fine IMHO.

Whereas errors such as "Your going to die!" just make me want to bang my head against a wall.

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Steve
Corporal in 69th Regt. 1st Batt. Homer’s Heroes.

"I'd like to die at the age of 80 in my own bed, with a belly full of wine and a girl's mouth around my c**k."

Thanks everyone for the comments and suggestions!

Cheers,
Stefan

To me , and just my opinion, not being an English Prof.
"ever die before" means "you're about too"
and
"ever died before" means "tell me about your experience in heaven, was Jesus nice?"

So I see the first as a threat and the second as your Aunt Gerties near death experience

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Rob Slater
A08/TQ2.0.42136E1

LOL - now that's a cool way to look at it.

Cheers,
Stefan