---
title: 〜ず and 〜ぬ
---
The suffixes 〜ず and 〜ぬ are both classical versions of the suffix 〜ない. In
fact, they are two conjugations of the same word, 〜ぬ being the
[連体形]{れんたいけい} form of 〜ず in Classical Japanese. However, there is
also another 連体形 form of 〜ず which happens to be 〜ざる.

〜ない, 〜ざる and 〜ぬ can all be used interchangeably:
- 知ら**ない**人
- 知ら**ざる**人
- 知ら**ぬ**人

According to this [post](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/questions/14518)
the 〜ざる form was more commonly used in [漢文]{かんぶん} while the 〜ぬ form
was more commonly used in [和文]{わぶん}.