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dropping て when connecting two sentences (?)

shiodome-nao

後輩
29 Oct 2016
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Hello!

I'm not good at Japanese yet, but I'm trying to translate a web-novel right now since apparently exposure is the best way to learn a language.. or so I've heard. :x

Sadly, there are lots of things I don't quite understand yet. Usually I am able to find explanations on forums or on google, but in this case I just can't seem to find anything. To begin with, I'm not even sure what I'm supposed to look for, so google/search engines in general are somewhat useless to me right now. :(

Anyway, that's why I decided to ask for help here. I'm sorry if this has been discussed in the past already, but as I said I'm not sure what I am supposed to look for.

The sentence I'm struggling with is:

可愛らしい姿はもうどこにもなく、どこからどう見ても立派な魔王の外見となったセシリア。

I think I understand what is being said here. It should be "Her lovely figure is already nowhere to be found; no matter how you look at it, Cecilia had the prominent appearance of a demon-lord." if I am not completely mistaken. (I am aware that I didn't translate it 1:1, but if I did the English would be awkward.)

To be honest, I have to use lots of online-dictionaries and stuff because I don't know all the kanji yet. But what I really don't understand here is the どこにもなく. They are either turning ない into an adverb for some reason I do not understand, which i really doubt, or the author is connecting the sentences "normally". But in that case, shouldn't it be どこにもなくて? Why does the author drop て here? Or is this something else that I haven't learned yet?

It would be nice if someone could help me/tell me what I am supposed to look for. Thanks for reading all that and I am sorry if I made mistakes, English is not my native language.

Greetings!
 
The -ku form is used to connect clauses there. Although the -ku form sounds more formal and often preferred in written language, there is no difference in meaning as the -kute form, as well as the -masu stem of verbs vs. the -te form of verbs.
 
Thanks for taking the time to answer my question!
So it's simply called "ku-form"? I should've been able to figure that name out by myself, really.. it never even occurred to me. :x I'm sorry! And thank you, really!
 
The technical term for it is ren'youkei and this works for verbs as well:

スーパーに行って、牛乳を買いました。
スーパーに行き、牛乳を買いました。

In textbook parlance, the ren'youkei of verbs is also known as the "pre-masu form" because it's what you get if you take the -masu off of the -masu conjugation of a verb.
 
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