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While reading the light novel for 君の名は I came across this sentence in the
first chapter:

> 私は大切な誰かと隙間なくぴったりとくっついている。

Is using `なく` here equivalent to using `ないで` or does it have a different
meaning altogether?
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2018-06-20T18:03:02.603
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question
grammar literature
What is なく doing in this sentence?
## Edit

It's come to my attention that the answer by @Chocolate is a much more
grounded answer than mine, and admittedly this was the first time I've learned
about such a structure in grammatical terms (noun + なく = adverb).

In light of that, I offer my original answer **a** (not **the** ) way a
Japanese language learner can remember or reason out what `noun + なく`probably
means.

In my personal experience, as a non-native Japanese language learner never
having studied the `noun + なく` form from a book, `noun + が + なくて` has always
been the way I've mentally reasoned out what `noun + なく` means while
communicating with native speakers. One of the first things I (and likely many
other Japanese language learners) learned when starting out was the existence
of `noun + が + ない`, so from that building block I would deduce the meaning of
`noun + なく`

In practice it's always helped me correctly understand at least the big-
picture meaning, but apparently not the standard grammatical basis.

## Original answer

> 隙間なく

means

> 隙間がなくて

隙間 is a noun, so the conjugation ○○ないで isn't applicable.
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2018-06-20T19:11:30.393
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answer
The なく is the 連用形 of ない used in the sense of:

> 10 名詞に付いて、否定の意を含む形容詞をつくる。「こころ―・い」「違い―・い」「面目 (めんぼく) ―・い」
> ([デジタル大辞泉](https://dictionary.goo.ne.jp/jn/162263/meaning/m0u/))

ない can be attached to a noun, forming an i-adjective with a negative meaning
("without~~"). A few more examples:
「[絶]{た}え[間]{ま}ない」「休みない」「[跡形]{あとかた}ない」「[相違]{そうい}ない」

[隙間]{すきま}なく in your example is the 連用形, or the adverbial form, of 「隙間ない」, i.e.
隙間+ない.

Examples: 「絶え間なく」「休みなく」「跡形なく」「[余念]{よねん}なく」「[仕方]{しかた}なく」
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answer