抜きで / 抜きにして|ぬきで / ぬきにして
- 1Doing something without a person or thing that would normally be included.Ex. 1
- 2Omitting or dispensing with a customary step, element or formality.Ex. 2
This browser can't play pronunciations (needs Safari 18.4 or later, or Chrome / Edge / Firefox).
It is neutral in register and common in both everyday conversation and business talk. Typical uses include leaving someone out of a meeting, skipping preliminaries or formalities, and set phrases like 冗談は抜きにして. Compared with を除いて, which names an exception within a group, 抜き stresses removing something that would ordinarily be part of the activity.
Do not attach 抜きで or 抜きにして directly to verbs; it follows nouns, optionally with を.
Note that the conditional form 抜きにしては is usually followed by a negative or impossibility, meaning 'X is indispensable'.
Learners sometimes use 抜き where を除いて fits better, when simply stating an exception rather than omitting an expected element.
- を除いてN2「を除いて」objectively marks an exception within a whole, with everything else covered by the predicate, and is somewhat formal. 「抜きで」emphasizes the absence of something that should be there, so the 'skip it' sense of 「前置きは抜きにして」cannot be replaced with 「を除いて」.
- は別としてN3「は別として」sets the first item aside for now or treats it as an exception, with the focus on the second item; 「抜きで」means actually removing something that would normally be present and then doing something. 「は別として」can also follow question forms to mean 'whichever it may be', so the two are generally not interchangeable.
- はさておきN1「はさておき」merely sets a topic aside for now to talk about something more pressing; it does not indicate the absence of something that should be there, and it has no conditional use like 「〜ない」. The two are close when 'setting something aside', as in 「前置きは抜きにして」and 「コストを抜きにして」.
- なしにN2「なしに」simply states that something is absent, without the nuance of removing something that should be there, and has no 'skip it' usage; it attaches directly to a noun without 「を」. When expressing a necessary condition, 「なしには」and 「を抜きにしては」are close and often interchangeable.
- ことなしにN1「ことなしに」attaches to the dictionary form of a verb, is written-style, and means 'without doing something'; 「抜きで」attaches to nouns, is neutral in register, and means leaving out something that would normally be there. Both can be followed by a negative to mean 'cannot do without...', but their connection rules differ, so they cannot be interchanged.
を除いて marks an exception within a group, and は別として and はさておき set a matter aside to deal with separately or later, whereas 抜きで/抜きにして means actually omitting something normally included. なしに and the more formal ことなしに mean 'without (doing)', and ことなしに attaches to verbs, while 抜き attaches only to nouns and highlights removal of an expected element.
