यूनिवर्सिटी ऑफ़ मिशिगन
 मार खाए बिना नहीं मानता :  Notes on V- ए बिना
      In Hindi-Urdu the postpositions  बिना and  बग़ैर 'without' are used with the oblique masculine singular form of the past participle of any verb to express 'without V-ing':
  1.  हँसे बिना तो जिया नहीं जा सकता।
      'A man cannot live without laughing.'
      (from Chapter Twenty-one of  प्रेमचन्द's  गोदान. See context.)
However, unlike most postpositions in Hindi-Urdu,  बिना is also used as a preposition:
  2.  उन्होंने पुकारा --  ज़रा सुनिए,  मिर्ज़ाजी,  आप तो भागे जा रहे हैं।
    मिर्ज़ाजी ने बिना रुके हुए जवाब दिया --  वह ग़रीब बोझ लिये इतनी तेज़ी से चला जा रहा है।
      'He called out, "Listen, would you, Mirza Ji? You are (practically) running!"
      Without stopping Mirza Ji answered, "That poor man is running so fast (and he is) carrying all (our) stuff."'
      (from Chapter Seven of  गोदान. See context.)
      बिना is especially likely to appear as a preposition (rather then as a postposition) if its object is an entire clause, as in (3):
  3.  उस पर भी तू बिना दस गाली दिये रोटी न देती थी।
      'Even so you wouldn't give me food without giving a dozen curses as well.'
       (from Chapter Four of  गोदान. See context.)
If the subject of a  बिना-clause differs from the subject of the main clause, it is expressed as the possessor of V-ए:
  4.  दिन-रात तुम्हारा ध्यान है,  बिना तुम्हारे मिले उनको कब आराम है ?
      'Day and night he thinks of you. How can he be at rest without having you?'
      (from  बयान Four of Part One of  खत्री's  चन्द्रकान्ता.)
      V-ए बिना is often used with another negated verb (in a construction parallel to the V-nakute naranai / ikenai of colloquial Japanese) as a double negative in the meaning of 'have to V' or 'must':
  5.  औरर गये बिना काम नहीं चलता।
      'And she had to go.' (Lit: 'Without going it would not be okay.')
      (from Chapter Seven of  गोदान. See context.)
  6.  बिन मेरे सताये न बने
      'She must torture me.' (Lit: 'May she be unable not to torture me.')
      (from a  ग़ज़ल by  ग़ालिब. See context.)
For more examples of this use of  V-ए बिना, see notes on the passive of incapacity.
      A related idiom is the use of  V-ए बिना  with the negated form of either  रह  or  छोड़  to express determination or ineluctability:
  7. बीज अंदर पड़ा,  तो अँखुआ निकले बिना नहीं रहता।
      'Once the seed's gone in, there's no way the shoot's not gonna come out!'
       (from Chapter Twenty-seven of  गोदान. See context.)
  8. गणित के कठिन से कठिन प्रश्न क्यों न हो, . . .  जयदेव बिना उसे सुलझाए छोड़ता न था।
      'No matter how hard the math problem might be, Jayadeva never failed to solve it.' (= 'never left it unsolved.')
      (from the story  विडम्बना by  नरेन्द्र कुमार सिन्हा.  See context.)
For discussion of constructions convergent with this one see the notes on compound-compound verbs and notes on V-कर रह- .
To exercise on V-ए बिना.
 Other sections dealing with negation:
        1.  V-नेवाला  to express disapproval, disbelief, defiance or denial.
        2.  मजाल है !  Warning and warding off.
        3.  रहा नहीं जाता :  Passive of incapacity
        4.  बनाए न बने :  Paired verbs and incapacity.
        5.  जाने का नाम नहीं लेता :  Empahtic negation.
To index of grammatical notes.
To index of  मल्हार
First drafted and posted in Jan 2001.  Reformatted in Oct 2001.  IE-enabled 15 June 2002. Augmented 30 June 2004. Cross-referenced 22 Aug 2004.