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E.g. 負けずに＆負けぬように Makezu vs Makenu
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2018-01-30T15:23:32.143
56308
2018-01-30T15:45:01.843
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question
grammar meaning nuances
Is "-Nu" same as "-Zu"when attached to end of words to mean "without doing" the attached verb?
Not exactly grammatically. According to
[Wikipedia](https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E5%8A%A9%E5%8B%95%E8%A9%9E_\(%E5%9B%BD%E6%96%87%E6%B3%95\)),
ず is 連用形 while ぬ is either 終止形 or 連体形. In your case if we swap them and obtain
負けぬに (I cannot even directly type this one out with my Japanese input) and
負けずように it won't be grammatically correct. Also note the meaning of your two
phrases are different. The first one means "without being defeated" while the
second means "so as not to be defeated". The last thing to note is that they
are all archaic forms of ない but still commonly used in contemporary Japanese.
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2018-01-30T15:38:47.750
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2018-01-30T15:45:01.843
2018-01-30T15:45:01.843
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answer