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文法ぶんぽうGrammar Point

〜ないで without doing: Meaning & Examples

nai de · JLPT N4

JLPT N45 textsQuiz ready

〜ないで means “without doing”. It is a JLPT N4 pattern, shown below in the sentences where real Japanese writers use it, with furigana on every word.

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〜ないで (without doing) in real sentences

Each one is quoted from a published Japanese text in this library and links to the story it came from. Some use older spellings, or break off where the sentence carried on. They are transcribed exactly as their authors wrote them.

The plain negative plus で joins one clause to the next and means "without doing X". It is how the story says an action happened in silence.

— from The Gap on the Shelf (N5)

— from The First Day of Summer (N5)

— from The Sound the Water Makes (N5)

— from One Umbrella, Please (N5)

確認かくにんSelf-check

Practise 〜ないで: fill in the blank

4 sentences taken from real Japanese texts, with the grammar removed. Pick what belongs in the gap.

Question 1 of 4

  1. 下りて来blank、上からわたしを見ています。

    Answer: ないで — from The Room on the Mountain (N5)

  2. 二さつを出すと、図書館の人が何も言わblank、はんこをおしました。

    Answer: ないで — from The Gap on the Shelf (N5)

  3. 何も言わblank、アヤの顔を見た。

    Answer: ないで — from The Sound the Water Makes (N5)

  4. かさを開かblank、川のほうへ歩いて行きました。

    Answer: ないで — from One Umbrella, Please (N5)

Read the texts these came from

Appears in 5 of 379 texts in our library.

蔵書ぞうしょThe texts

5 texts in the library use 〜ないで

Free to read in full. Furigana over every kanji, a dictionary on any word you tap, and an English breakdown of each sentence.

本と本の間 cover Read 本と本の間 The Gap on the Shelf Yomimaru 12 min read · Short Story 白いいと cover Read 白いいと The First Day of Summer Yomimaru 14 min read · Short Story みじかい音 cover Read みじかい音 The Sound the Water Makes Yomimaru 14 min read · Short Story かさを一本 cover Read かさを一本 One Umbrella, Please Yomimaru 12 min read · Short Story 山の上のへや cover Read 山の上のへや The Room on the Mountain Yomimaru 14 min read · Short Story

解説かいせつBackground

Where this 〜ないで explanation comes from

〜ないで sits at JLPT N4 in the 302-point taxonomy every text in this library is tagged against. Each text is read for the patterns it contains, which is what lets this page list every text that uses 〜ないで and pull its example sentences out of them.

The example sentences were not written to demonstrate the rule. They are quoted from published Japanese texts in this library (The Gap on the Shelf and The First Day of Summer among them), and each one links back to the story it came from, so you can read the sentence where it actually happened.

質問しつもんQuestions

〜ないで: questions & answers

What does 〜ないで mean?

〜ないで means “without doing”. It is a JLPT N4 pattern, and the example sentences on this page show it doing that job in published Japanese rather than in a constructed example.

What JLPT level is 〜ないで?

〜ないで is normally introduced around JLPT N4. The texts listed on this page span several levels, because a pattern taught at N4 keeps turning up in writing well above and below it.

How do I get 〜ないで to stick?

Read it rather than review it. Meeting 〜ないで in 5 different stories attaches it to 5 contexts you remember, where reviewing the rule 5 times attaches it to nothing. Every text listed here is free to read in full.

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