18018
What is the difference between endings なし and 抜【ぬ】き when you want to exclude a
certain ingredient from food? Aside from 氷【こおり】なし when ordering soft drinks, I
thought that for most other things 抜【ぬ】き should be used. But my friend has
been saying 卵【たまご】なし to get rid of an egg, so I'm curious when which one of
those is appropriate.
CC BY-SA 4.0
2014-07-28T18:37:07.130
18015
2020-02-27T15:26:51.593
2019-10-24T00:43:55.303
6632
question
usage nuances
(Ordering food) difference between なし and 抜き
As a customer, using either one is completely fine. Among us native speakers,
it is like each person has a habit of using one over the other.

Point is each eatery tends to use one word over the other among its staff
members as well, meaning that even when you order by saying, for instance,
「[卵]{たまご}なしで = "with no eggs"」, your waiter/waitress might reply by saying
「卵[抜]{ぬ}きですね？」. This happens quite often but do not be discouraged because
they are just using 「抜き」 almost as a house rule. It is not that they are
trying to correct you because you used the wrong word.
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2014-07-28T19:44:27.563
18018
2019-07-04T01:31:41.397
2019-07-04T01:31:41.397
18015
answer
Although similar, there is a small semantic difference between the two words.

> 抜き（ぬき）

**Meaning:** leaving out; omitting; skipping

As an example, at a conveyor belt sushi restaurant in Japan, if you order
sushi without wasabi, you may get a little flag to indicate that the sushi
comes without wasabi.

[![enter image description
here](https://i.stack.imgur.com/8ROKw.png)](https://i.stack.imgur.com/8ROKw.png)

If it is typical or expected for a restaurant to serve sushi with wasabi then
ぬき emphasises that something has been left out, removed or excluded.

* * *

> なし（無し）

**Meaning:** without

The word is very similar to ない, which means something that does not exist.

なし is often used to refer to people whereas ぬき is often used to refer to
ingredients. (氷なし being a strange exception to that rule)
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2020-02-27T15:26:51.593
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2020-02-27T15:26:51.593
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answer