I have already learned how to conjugate the て form and when to use it, but I don’t understand how to conjugate the negative form, nor the difference between ないで and なくて. Every website in which I’ve researched about the topic says something different, so I hope you can clarify my doubts.
2 comments
I think なくて is used as negative て form to connect clauses. It can be used in the なくてもいい structure. It is also used for ‘must’ expressions like なくてはいけない.
ないで is used when modifying another verb (朝ごはんを食べないで出た – I left without eating breakfast). Here it means ‘without~’. ないで is also used to make requests like ないでください. ないで can also be used in the ないでもいい structure. Also it is used for the ている, てある, でおく structures.
To conjugate to ないで, take the plain negative form of a verb and add で (食べない – 食べないで, 話さない – 話さないで). Same for special case verbs.
To conjugate to なくて, take the plain negative form of a verb, change the final い to く and add て. (食べない – 食べなくて, 話さない – 話さなくて). Same for special case verbs.
There is more technical difference and mode practical. First one is more about the difference between で and て. Origin of で is very vague and most likely we deal with several different versions, like だ copula in て form (だー＞で) or にて being being shortened in such way. Speaking honestly it doesn’t matter much, just understanding that it’s different is enough. To see how it differs on practice, it’s better to add ずに, that roughly means the same “without”.
You can notice that on one side we have ずに, which has adverbial に, then we have a possible にて (で), which combines に with て and on the other side we have a pure て form. That’s roughly how it would differ on practice too. When we describe something purely in adverbial form, we can use ずに and ないで like “I went to work without eating” 食べずに仕事に行きました. You probably also know about several expressions like てくさだい、てほしい、てもらう and so on, all these have て connection before it and as we have seen before, only ないで and て can provide such connection. The difference is that ないで does it in more adverbial way and pure て does it in a causal manner. Compare “I was glad that she didn’t go there” with “Please don’t laugh”. First has a clear causing situation, one thing happens and leads to another, in such situations we can use both ないで and て, but the latter sentence lacks it. We simply say adverbially “do it this way” or more literal “don’t do it”, because it’s a negation. In this case only ないで can be used.
Thus ないで is much more universal, and I know only about one situation when it’s awkward. When we have a pattern like “it’s not X, but Y” like “it’s not apples, but oranges” りんごじゃなくてみかんです. It’s the only case when なくて is preferred.