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気にするまいと思っても、気にせずにはいられない。

In above sentence, I guess せず means しない, but what is the original form, and how does it become せず?

永劫回帰
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Eric
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    Mildly related reading: http://japanese.stackexchange.com/q/12644/. See also: http://japanese.stackexchange.com/q/235/ and http://japanese.stackexchange.com/q/2840/. – senshin Dec 07 '15 at 19:18
  • @senshin The 2nd link is very useful. – Eric Dec 07 '15 at 19:29
  • The second link probably needs another answer… –  Dec 07 '15 at 19:36

2 Answers2

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The -ず form of a verb means "without doing" and is roughly equivalent to ないで. It's not a contraction of anything and is a verb form on its own.

The -ず form is formed by taking the -ない form of a verb and replacing the -ない with -ず. For the irregular verbs, する becomes せず and [来]{く}る becomes [来]{こ}ず.

9

what is the original form

The verb する.

and how does it become せず?

ず is an auxiliary verb ([助動詞]{じょどうし}) which attaches to the [未然形]{みぜんけい} of the verb. せ is one 未然形 of する and is the one which ず attaches to.

Robin
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