-zu ending

[ax]

Can somebody explain about the -zu ending? I am confused at how to put it in use. tatoeba:
思わず
someone told me its negative and means 'without', yet I don't know how to properly use this form.
help appreciated.

ax

 

[Mike Cash]

Just think of it as being the equivalent of "-nai". You'll often see it as "-zu ni" which you can think of as "-nai de". There may be some fine points of difference between the two, but this should be enough to keep you bumping happily down the road.

 

[ax]

思わず裸足で外に出た
Without thinking I went outside barefoot.
女だと間違えず働きやがって！スケベなリモコンだ！
For a woman, this damn thing works without a mistake! Pervy remote control!

I got that from JGram, but with very little sample, I don't know how I would be able to use it properly. I am going to google some more, and try to use it and make some mistakes of it.

ax

 

[GaijinPunch]

Mike put it about as plain as it can be. It is simply the negative form. One blatantly open point is that you don't end with ず (unless your purposefully ending your sentence prematurely)

Like Mike's example.
お金を忘れずに「何何します」

手を洗わずにご飯食べないで
Ooh -- this one is interesting. You could say:
手を洗わないでご飯を食べないで but you could not say:
手を洗わないでご飯を食べず「に」
It's a negative conjugation of the verb but is used to connect, and needs something to follow it. That's the key.

You can also use it as an adjective, as in your first example.
帰らずの道 = The road with no return (no turning back from here)

 

[Elizabeth]

そして、手を洗わなければ、食べずに捨てたほうが良いという私の意見です。


「ずに」の方がちよっと堅い言い方です。
「ないで」が日常会話では多く使われるでしょう。

 

[Scrivener]

思わず... someone told me its negative and means 'without'

Just stick "without" in front of the verb: "without thinking" etc. ("I reacted without thinking")