Hindi has two important ways to deny a non-finite event. न + infinitive presents an action as not happening: न जाना “not to go / not going.” A बिना construction presents one event as absent while another occurs: बिना बताए जाना “to leave without telling anyone.” Neither construction carries an independent tense; its time and participants come from the larger clause.
This differs from English, where not to go, not going, and without telling look like three separate patterns. Hindi uses the infinitive as a verbal noun, while बिना normally selects an -ए form such as बताए, खाए, किए, not the citation infinitive in -ना.
न with an infinitive
Put न immediately before an infinitive when the non-occurrence itself functions as a subject, complement, or modifier.
समय पर न पहुँचना ठीक नहीं है।
samay par na pahũcnā ṭhīk nahīṃ hai.
Not arriving on time is not acceptable.
मीरा ने बैठक में न जाने का फ़ैसला किया।
mīrā ne baiṭhak meṃ na jāne kā faislā kiyā.
Mira decided not to go to the meeting.
मैंने उससे यह बात किसी को न बताने को कहा।
maĩne usse yah bāt kisī ko na batāne ko kahā.
I told her not to tell anyone about this.
The infinitive changes to an oblique form before का or को: न जाने का, न बताने को. The negator remains directly associated with the infinitival event. In neutral modern prose and speech this non-finite न is normal; it is not necessarily literary merely because finite literary clauses can also use न.
For the nominal behavior of -ना, see the infinitive as a verbal noun.
Negating the infinitive versus negating the main predicate
The position of the negator changes the meaning. Compare these two sentences:
अर्जुन ने नौकरी छोड़ने का फ़ैसला नहीं किया।
arjun ne naukrī choṛne kā faislā nahīṃ kiyā.
Arjun did not decide to leave the job.
अर्जुन ने नौकरी न छोड़ने का फ़ैसला किया।
arjun ne naukrī na choṛne kā faislā kiyā.
Arjun decided not to leave the job.
In the first, नहीं has wide scope over decide: perhaps Arjun is still undecided. In the second, न has narrow scope inside the decision: a decision was made, and its content was not leaving. English marks the same contrast through the position of not, but Hindi makes it especially visible through न versus finite नहीं.
A superficially similar finite pattern also needs care:
मुझे आज दफ़्तर नहीं जाना है।
mujhe āj daftar nahīṃ jānā hai.
I am not to go to the office today / I don’t have to go to the office today.
Here जाना है is a finite obligation or schedule construction, so नहीं negates the whole predicate. It is not simply a free-standing noun phrase meaning “not going.” Compare the unmistakably nominal आज दफ़्तर न जाना बेहतर है “not going to the office today is better.”
बिना: one event occurs without another
For “without doing,” standard Hindi uses बिना + verb in -ए or places बिना after the whole non-finite phrase. Both orders are common:
वह बिना बताए घर से निकल गया।
vah binā batāe ghar se nikal gayā.
He left home without telling anyone.
वह किसी को बताए बिना घर से निकल गया।
vah kisī ko batāe binā ghar se nikal gayā.
He left home without telling anyone.
सुबह कुछ खाए बिना इतनी दूर मत चलो।
subah kuch khāe binā itnī dūr mat calo.
Don’t walk that far in the morning without eating anything. (familiar)
Forms such as किए, लिए, दिए, पिए are irregular-looking high-frequency members of this pattern: बिना भुगतान किए “without making payment,” अनुमति लिए बिना “without taking permission,” पानी पिए बिना “without drinking water.” There is no productive rule that permits English speakers simply to put बिना before the dictionary form: standard बिना बताए, not बिना बताना.
In formal notices, a longer noun phrase is common:
पूर्व अनुमति लिए बिना प्रयोगशाला में प्रवेश न करें।
pūrv anumati lie binā prayogśālā meṃ praveś na kareṃ.
Do not enter the laboratory without prior permission. (formal)
This sentence contains two different negative relations. लिए बिना says that permission is absent; formal न करें prohibits entry. Replacing either one mechanically with नहीं would obscure the structure.
Who performs the बिना event?
When no separate subject is stated, the understood performer of the बिना event is normally the main-clause subject.
सना सबको धन्यवाद दिए बिना चली गई।
sanā sabko dhanyavād die binā calī gaī.
Sana left without thanking everyone.
Sana both left and failed to thank. If the absent event has a different performer, Hindi usually names that participant in an oblique possessive phrase:
मेरे बताए बिना सना ने तारीख़ बदल दी।
mere batāe binā sanā ne tārīx badal dī.
Sana changed the date without my telling her to.
डॉक्टर की अनुमति मिले बिना इलाज शुरू नहीं हुआ।
ḍokṭar kī anumati mile binā ilāj śurū nahīṃ huā.
The treatment did not begin before the doctor’s permission was received.
In मेरे बताए बिना, मेरे supplies the understood subject of बताए. In the last example, the intransitive अनुमति मिले literally presents permission as “being received.” English speakers often leave the participant relation vague; Hindi normally makes a change of subject overt when confusion is possible.
Time, aspect, and scope
The non-finite form itself does not say past, present, or future. The main predicate supplies the time:
वह हर दिन नाश्ता किए बिना निकलता है।
vah har din nāśtā kie binā nikaltā hai.
He leaves every day without having breakfast.
वह कल नाश्ता किए बिना निकला।
vah kal nāśtā kie binā niklā.
He left yesterday without having breakfast.
वह कल नाश्ता किए बिना नहीं निकलेगा।
vah kal nāśtā kie binā nahīṃ niklegā.
He will not leave tomorrow without having breakfast.
The third sentence does not merely say that he will not eat. The wide-scope नहीं rejects an entire “leave without breakfast” event, pragmatically implying that he will eat before leaving. This layered scope is one reason word-for-word translation is unreliable.
The fixed concessive phrase न चाहते हुए भी means “despite not wanting to.” It combines न with the habitual-participial adverbial चाहते हुए, not with an infinitive:
न चाहते हुए भी मुझे योजना रद्द करनी पड़ी।
na cāhte hue bhī mujhe yojnā radd karnī paṛī.
Although I did not want to, I had to cancel the plan.
This is neutral to slightly formal, common in careful speech and writing. It does not mean “without wanting” in every context; it highlights reluctant action despite one’s wishes.
Requests and instructions
In a command, बिना describes the missing accompanying event, while मत or formal न carries the prohibition:
कृपया मुझे बताए बिना मत जाइए।
kripyā mujhe batāe binā mat jāie.
Please don’t leave without telling me. (honorific, direct)
मेरी बात सुने बिना फ़ैसला मत करना।
merī bāt sune binā faislā mat karnā.
Don’t decide without hearing me out. (familiar)
आवेदन पूरा किए बिना उसे जमा न करें।
āvedan pūrā kie binā use jamā na kareṃ.
Do not submit the application without completing it. (formal)
The first two are everyday direct prohibitions. The last uses formal न करें, typical of written instructions and polite institutional language. बिना itself is register-neutral.
Common Mistakes
Using the infinitive after बिना
❌ वह बिना बताना चला गया।
Incorrect — बिना does not normally take the citation infinitive in this verbal construction.
✅ वह पता बताए बिना चला गया।
vah patā batāe binā calā gayā.
He left without giving the address.
Moving the negation outside the intended decision
❌ कविता ने जवाब देने का फ़ैसला नहीं किया।
Incorrect for the intended meaning ‘Kavita decided not to answer’; this says she did not make a decision to answer.
✅ कविता ने जवाब न देने का फ़ैसला किया।
kavitā ne javāb na dene kā faislā kiyā.
Kavita decided not to answer.
Leaving a changed subject unclear
❌ बिना बताए अर्जुन ने कार्यक्रम बदल दिया।
Misleading for the intended meaning ‘without Mira telling him’: the default reading makes Arjun the understood teller.
✅ मीरा के बताए बिना अर्जुन ने कार्यक्रम बदल दिया।
mīrā ke batāe binā arjun ne kāryakram badal diyā.
Arjun changed the program without Mira telling him to.
Treating बिना as the clause negator
❌ वह आज बिना आएगा।
Incorrect — बिना needs a complement and does not mean finite ‘not.’
✅ वह आज नहीं आएगा।
vah āj nahīṃ āegā.
He will not come today.
Key Takeaways
Use न + infinitive when “not doing” is itself a nominal or embedded event. Use -ए + बिना or बिना + -ए for “without doing.” Keep scope visible: न जाने का फ़ैसला किया is a decision not to go, whereas जाने का फ़ैसला नहीं किया denies that a decision was made. An unexpressed बिना subject normally matches the main subject; state a different performer overtly.
Related Topics
- The infinitive as verbal nounA2 — Use the Hindi -ना form to name an action while preserving its objects, modifiers, and understood or expressed subject.
- Infinitive with postpositionsA2 — Combine the oblique Hindi infinitive with postpositions to express purpose, time, cause, means, condition, duration, and alternatives.
- Negative converbs बिना and बग़ैरB2 — Express 'without doing' through Hindi perfective-oblique forms with बिना or बग़ैर while keeping subject control and scope clear.
- Same-subject constraint with converbsB2 — Track the understood subject through Hindi -कर and -करके chains and repair changes of actor with finite or nominalized clauses.
- न as formal literary or subordinate negationA2 — Use न in subordinate irrealis clauses, formal prohibitions, fixed expressions, and marked literary finite negation without replacing ordinary नहीं everywhere.
- मत in negative imperativesA2 — Form direct negative commands with मत plus an imperative or infinitive form, and distinguish them from factual नहीं and formal prohibitive न.