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Dictionary form: お礼{れい}をする

Transformed into ず-form: お礼をせず

Is お礼をせず used similar to the English expression "without thanking" which itself can work as an adverb, e.g. I ate without thanking

わたしはお礼をせず食{た}べた。

eugene_laserhair
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2 Answers2

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Yes.

However, something to be careful of is 〜ず vs. 〜ずに:

お役に立てず、申し訳ありません。
"We apologize for being unable to serve you."

✗お役に立てずに、申し訳ありません。

お礼も言わず（に）食べた。
"He ate without saying his thanks."

I think you could say that 〜ず allows for exactly what なくて supports plus adverbial modification, while 〜ずに only allows for adverbial modification.

Community
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Darius Jahandarie
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Strictly speaking the answer is no. Just the -ず ending by itself won't create anything "adverb-like". That's why it takes the "ni" particle (-ずに), to become adverb-like (just like 自由 jiyuu is freedom and 自由に jiyuu ni is freely).
When you have a -ず ending you have a 連用形 ren'youkei, also known as ます形. It follows a negative base (未然形 mizenkei), but the auxiliary verb isn't negative, it's, as I said, a ren'youkei, meaning that it's more like a substantive than an adverb.

When it takes "ni", it becomes "adverb-like", usually depicting the way something is done. In this case it compares to a ないで ending.

Without "ni" it's like a なくて ending, meaning the sentence will be something like "[subject] don't A, and [subject] do B".

It's pretty straightforward if you think about it. You can coordinate two sentences with a て形 te-kei or with a 連用形 ren'youkei (in different contexts). But what if you want to coordinate a negative sentence? The first one becomes nakute, but the second one? You can use ず (、), because, yeah, it follows a negative base (未然形 mizenkei), but it's a ren'youkei if it comes to the auxiliary verb -ず.

Kokoroatari
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  • This seems incorrect or misleading to me. 〜ず functions adverbially just fine. お礼も言わず食べた is just fine, with the same meaning as お礼も言わずに食べた. 〜ずに forces the adverbial meaning, but both have it. – Darius Jahandarie Oct 13 '14 at 00:38
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    The way Martin explains it, に can optionally be omitted from ずに, so ず has all of the uses ずに has, plus some others. –  Oct 13 '14 at 00:51
  • It's not incorrect, because -zu actually is a ren'youkei, however I do see your point. In case like the one you're thinking about, you can just assume ni isn't expressed explicitly, much like it happens with tame (ni). In other cases like the one in your example, its nature of ren'youkei should be more obvious. – Kokoroatari Oct 13 '14 at 00:52
  • Ouch, snailboat was faster. Just like she said, but you can also look at it like this: ず→なくて and ず(に)→ないで – Kokoroatari Oct 13 '14 at 01:00