bez toho, aby

Without Doing

Level 5

Bez toho, aby + l-form (+ som, si, sme, ste for I, you and we) means without doing: Prešla okolo nás bez toho, aby nás pozdravila. (She walked past us without saying hello.)

How It Works

Without doing. English says without + -ing. Slovak needs a clause: bez toho, aby + l-form. Odišiel bez toho, aby sa rozlúčil. (He left without saying goodbye.)

Building it. With a noun, bez simply takes the genitive: bez slova (without a word), bez rozlúčky (without a goodbye). With an action, toho fills the genitive slot and aby follows after a comma. Add som, si, sme, ste for I, you and we: bez toho, aby som sa opýtal.

Keep the verb positive. Bez already carries the idea of not. The verb after aby is therefore positive, and so are words like niečo (something, anything), never nič: Sedeli sme bez toho, aby sme niečo povedali. (We sat without saying anything.)

Aby, not že. A že clause reports something that really happened. The action after bez toho did not happen, so it needs aby and the l-form.

A literary alternative. In written, literary style a negative transgressive can say the same thing: Odišiel nerozlúčiac sa. In everyday Slovak, bez toho, aby is the normal choice.

Examples (5)

  1. Odišiel bez toho, aby sa rozlúčil.

    He left without saying goodbye.

    Word by Word: He-left without that, so-that himself he-said-goodbye.

  2. Prešla okolo nás bez toho, aby nás pozdravila.

    She walked past us without saying hello to us.

    Word by Word: She-passed around us without that, so-that us she-greeted.

  3. Zobral si moje auto bez toho, aby sa ma opýtal.

    He took my car without asking me.

    Word by Word: He-took for-himself my car without that, so-that himself me he-asked.

  4. Nemôžeš podpísať zmluvu bez toho, aby si ju prečítal.

    You can't sign a contract without reading it.

    Word by Word: You-cannot sign contract without that, so-that you it read.

  5. Dve hodiny sme sedeli bez toho, aby sme niečo povedali.

    We sat for two hours without saying anything.

    Word by Word: Two hours we sat without that, so-that we something said.

    The verb and niečo stay positive.

Common Mistakes

  • Putting an infinitive after bez.

    Odišiel bez rozlúčiť sa.
    Odišiel bez toho, aby sa rozlúčil.

    Bez is a preposition with the genitive, so it cannot take an infinitive. Use toho, aby + l-form, or a noun: bez rozlúčky.

  • Making the verb negative.

    Odišiel bez toho, aby sa nerozlúčil.
    Odišiel bez toho, aby sa rozlúčil.

    Bez already means not. A negative verb after it muddles the meaning, so keep the verb positive.

  • Using že instead of aby.

    Odišiel bez toho, že sa rozlúčil.
    Odišiel bez toho, aby sa rozlúčil.

    A že clause states that something happened. Here the goodbye did not happen, so use aby + l-form.

How It Connects

Tap a pattern to see what it builds on and what it leads to.

bez toho, abyLevel 5Without Doing

Learn This First

Before Without Doing, learn So That: aby and Common Prepositions With the Genitive. bez toho, aby uses aby. bez takes the genitive.

Words in This Pattern