Hindi normally expresses “without doing” with an -ए participial form plus बिना or बग़ैर: बताए बिना “without telling,” कुछ कहे बग़ैर “without saying anything.” The negative event is packaged as an adverbial circumstance; the following finite predicate carries tense, agreement, and the main assertion.
This construction is not built from the infinitive -ना, and it is not simply नहीं added to a positive -कर converb. English uses a preposition plus an -ing form, but Hindi uses a perfective-oblique-looking form whose interpretation is specifically nonoccurrence.
For comparison with ordinary postpositional infinitives such as करने के बाद, see infinitives with postpositions.
Form: the -ए participle plus बिना or बग़ैर
| Infinitive | Negative converb | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| करना | किए बिना / किए बग़ैर | without doing |
| जाना | गए बिना / गए बग़ैर | without going |
| खाना | खाए बिना / खाए बग़ैर | without eating |
| देना | दिए बिना / दिए बग़ैर | without giving |
| लेना | लिए बिना / लिए बग़ैर | without taking |
| होना | हुए बिना / हुए बग़ैर | without being/happening |
Regular verbs show -ए: पढ़े, पूछे, बताए. Irregular perfectives retain their special bases: किए, गए, लिए, दिए, हुए. The spelling किए is the modern standard used in this guide.
वह नाश्ता किए बिना दफ़्तर निकल गया।
vah nāśtā kie binā daftar nikal gayā.
He left for the office without having breakfast.
मीरा कुछ कहे बग़ैर कमरे से बाहर चली गई।
mīrā kuch kahe baġair kamre se bāhar calī gaī.
Meera left the room without saying anything.
The converb does not agree with masculine वह or feminine मीरा. Agreement appears on निकल गया/चली गई.
Both word orders are possible
बिना/बग़ैर can follow the verbal phrase or precede it:
दस्तावेज़ पढ़े बिना हस्ताक्षर मत कीजिए।
dastāvez paṛhe binā hastākṣar mat kījie.
Do not sign without reading the document. (respectful)
बिना दस्तावेज़ पढ़े हस्ताक्षर मत कीजिए।
binā dastāvez paṛhe hastākṣar mat kījie.
Do not sign without reading the document. (respectful)
Postposed पढ़े बिना is extremely common. Preposed बिना दस्तावेज़ पढ़े can foreground the missing prerequisite. बग़ैर permits comparable placement, though long phrases are often easiest to process with the marker after the verb.
बिना is neutral across conversation and writing. बग़ैर is also standard and widely understood, with an Urdu-influenced flavor that may sound slightly more literary or stylistically marked in strongly Sanskritic prose. It is not archaic.
Verbal बिना versus nominal के बिना
With a noun phrase, use के बिना/के बग़ैर or the reversed postpositional order:
पहचान-पत्र के बिना अंदर जाना संभव नहीं है।
pahcān-patra ke binā andar jānā sambhav nahīṃ hai.
It is not possible to enter without identification.
With a verb, use the participle directly; do not insert के:
पहचान-पत्र दिखाए बिना अंदर मत जाइए।
pahcān-patra dikhāe binā andar mat jāie.
Do not go inside without showing identification. (respectful)
The first means absence of a thing. The second means nonperformance of an event. English without hides this noun–verb distinction.
The missing event may be prior or simultaneous
“Without doing” often names an omitted prerequisite:
उसने नियम पढ़े बिना आवेदन भेज दिया।
usne niyam paṛhe binā āvedan bhej diyā.
He or she submitted the application without reading the rules.
Reading would normally precede submission. But the missing event can also be simultaneous or durative:
ड्राइवर कहीं रुके बग़ैर पाँच घंटे गाड़ी चलाता रहा।
ḍrāivar kahīṃ ruke baġair pā̃c ghaṇṭe gāṛī calātā rahā.
The driver kept driving for five hours without stopping anywhere.
Here nonstopping holds throughout the drive. -ए बिना therefore does not encode “before” by itself; lexical meaning and the matrix event establish the temporal relation.
Subject control: the usual shared-subject reading
With no explicit embedded subject, the missing action normally belongs to the matrix controller:
रिया किसी से सलाह लिए बिना निर्णय नहीं लेती।
riyā kisī se salāh lie binā nirṇay nahīṃ letī.
Riya does not make a decision without consulting someone.
Riya both consults and decides. The negative converb has no independent person marking.
A different subject can be made explicit in a genitive-marked phrase:
मेरे बताए बिना यह फ़ाइल किसी को मत भेजना।
mere batāe binā yah fāil kisī ko mat bhejnā.
Do not send this file to anyone without my telling you. (familiar)
मेरे identifies the person whose telling is absent; the addressee is to refrain from sending. This structure is especially natural with authorization, knowledge, arrival, or consent: उसकी अनुमति के बिना, मेरे आए बिना.
Negative converb versus finite negation
उसने सवाल नहीं पढ़ा और जवाब लिख दिया।
usne savāl nahīṃ paṛhā aur javāb likh diyā.
He or she did not read the question and wrote an answer.
उसने सवाल पढ़े बिना जवाब लिख दिया।
usne savāl paṛhe binā javāb likh diyā.
He or she wrote an answer without reading the question.
The finite coordination makes two assertions, one negative and one positive. The converb version backgrounds the omitted reading as a circumstance of answering and often implies criticism, surprise, or a violated expectation.
Positive पढ़कर packages an actual event; negative पढ़े बिना packages its absence. Forms such as न पढ़कर are possible under contrastive focus—roughly “by not reading”—but they are not the general everyday replacement for पढ़े बिना.
A compressed written sentence and its expansion
आवेदक की लिखित अनुमति लिए बिना व्यक्तिगत जानकारी साझा नहीं की जाएगी।
āvedak kī likhit anumati lie binā vyaktigat jānkārī sājhā nahīṃ kī jāegī.
Personal information will not be shared without obtaining the applicant's written permission. (formal)
The passive leaves the responsible institution implicit and turns missing permission into a condition. Expanded:
संस्था पहले आवेदक से लिखित अनुमति माँगेगी। यदि आवेदक अनुमति नहीं देगा, तो संस्था व्यक्तिगत जानकारी साझा नहीं करेगी।
saṃsthā pahle āvedak se likhit anumati mā̃gegī. yadi āvedak anumati nahīṃ degā, to saṃsthā vyaktigat jānkārī sājhā nahīṃ karegī.
The organization will first ask the applicant for written permission. If the applicant does not grant it, the organization will not share personal information. (formal)
The compressed version suits policies because the prohibition matters more than the actor. The finite version makes the decision path and institutional responsibility explicit.
Common Mistakes
1. Using an oblique infinitive instead of the participle
❌ नियम पढ़ने बिना आवेदन मत भेजिए।
Incorrect — verbal बिना requires पढ़े, not infinitive पढ़ने.
✅ नियम पढ़े बिना आवेदन मत भेजिए।
niyam paṛhe binā āvedan mat bhejie.
Do not submit the application without reading the rules. (respectful)
2. Inserting के after a verbal form
❌ किसी को बताए के बिना वह चला गया।
Incorrect — the verbal construction is बताए बिना, with no के.
✅ किसी को बताए बिना वह चला गया।
kisī ko batāe binā vah calā gayā.
He left without telling anyone.
3. Making the converb agree with a feminine subject
❌ रीना खाना खाई बिना निकल गई।
Incorrect — the negative converb uses invariant खाए, not feminine खाई.
✅ रीना खाना खाए बिना निकल गई।
rīnā khānā khāe binā nikal gaī.
Reena left without eating.
4. Combining करके with बिना
❌ जाँच करके बिना रिपोर्ट मत भेजिए।
Incorrect — करके presents an actual linked event; 'without checking' requires जाँचे बिना.
✅ जाँचे बिना रिपोर्ट मत भेजिए।
jā̃ce binā riporṭ mat bhejie.
Do not send the report without checking it. (respectful)
5. Leaving a genuinely different subject dangling
❌ हम टिकट खरीदे बिना ट्रेन छूट गई।
Incorrect — nominative हम cannot control खरीदे बिना while ट्रेन is the separate matrix subject.
✅ इससे पहले कि हम टिकट खरीदते, ट्रेन छूट गई।
isse pahle ki ham ṭikaṭ kharīdte, ṭren chūṭ gaī.
The train left before we could buy tickets.
Key Takeaways
- Verbal “without doing” uses -ए + बिना/बग़ैर, including irregular किए, गए, लिए, दिए, हुए.
- The construction is invariant; matrix grammar carries person, TAM, and agreement.
- बिना/बग़ैर can precede or follow the verbal phrase, while nouns normally use के बिना/के बग़ैर.
- The absent event may be a prior prerequisite or a simultaneous non-event; the form itself does not encode past tense.
- An omitted subject normally shares the matrix controller, but an explicit genitive participant can mark a different subject.
Now practice Hindi
Reading grammar gets you part of the way. The exercises are where it sticks — free, no signup needed.
Start learning Hindi →Related Topics
- Conjunctive participle in -karB1 — Use invariant Hindi -कर converbs to connect a shared-subject event with a following finite event as sequence, means, cause, or manner.
- करके as an expanded converbB2 — Use करके to link an event expressed with करना—including noun, adjective, and loan predicates—to a following shared-subject event.
- 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.
- Infinitive with postpositionsA2 — Combine the oblique Hindi infinitive with postpositions to express purpose, time, cause, means, condition, duration, and alternatives.
- The oblique in compound postpositional phrasesA2 — Build oblique noun phrases before compound Hindi postpositions such as के साथ, के लिए, के पास, and के बारे में.
- Converb event sequencingB2 — Interpret and build Hindi converb chains by tracking event order, semantic relations, subject continuity, negation, and the final predicate's scope.