In short

These four all answer “in what state was the action done?”. 〜まま (mama) says a state was left unchanged when it normally would have changed - 電気をつけたまま寝ました (I slept with the light still on). 〜っぱなし (-ppanashi) is the same idea with blame attached, or with “nonstop” force. 〜とおり／どおり (tōri / -dōri) says something matched a model exactly - 予定どおり, as scheduled. 〜ずに (-zu ni) is simply the written-register twin of 〜ないで, without doing.

The rule

Step 1 - まま: a state nobody changed. The core meaning is narrow and worth stating precisely: something reached a state, and then that state was carried into the next action instead of being undone. The light got switched on and stayed on; the shoes went on and stayed on. That is why the verb in front of まま is the た-form - a state can only be left once it already exists.

• V-た + まま - 電気をつけたまま寝ました。(Denki o tsuketa mama nemashita.) I slept with the light left on.
• 靴をはいたまま (kutsu o haita mama) - with shoes still on.

A dictionary form in front of まま is not this construction: ×つけるまま -> ○ つけたまま.

Very often there is an implication that the state should have been changed - which is why so many まま sentences sound faintly like confessions.

Step 2 - What else まま attaches to. まま is a formal noun (like こと, ところ, よう in lesson 50 and lesson 49), so everything links to it the way it links to a noun:

• Noun + の + まま - この町は昔のままです。(Kono machi wa mukashi no mama desu.) Never ×昔まま.
• い-adjective + まま - 熱いまま食べてください。(Atsui mama tabete kudasai.) Please eat it while it’s still hot.
• な-adjective + な + まま - 静かなままでした。(Shizuka na mama deshita.)

Step 3 - そのまま, and the negative 〜ないまま. Because まま is a noun, the ko-so-a-do series attaches straight to it, and そのまま (“as it is, untouched”) is one of the highest-frequency words in this lesson. Add に and it becomes adverbial: そのままにしておいてください。 (Sono mama ni shite oite kudasai.) Please leave it as it is.

V-ない + まま describes a state that failed to arrive: 問題が解決しないまま、会議が終わりました。 (Mondai ga kaiketsu shinai mama, kaigi ga owarimashita.) The nuance is that the missing change is still hanging there - which is exactly what separates it from ずに below. 傘を持たずに出かけました simply reports that you did not take an umbrella; 傘を持たないまま出かけました dwells on going out umbrella-less.

Step 4 - っぱなし: the judgemental cousin (recognition first). This is the hardest item on the page - it is normally graded N3, at the top of this band, so aim to recognise it and to produce the handful of fixed collocations below, not to generate it freely. Form: ます-stem + っぱなし. It comes from 放す hanasu (“let go, release”), which the small っ and the shift from は to ぱ disguise. The result is a noun, so it needs にする, にしておく, or です.

Two readings:

1. Left in a state through negligence - evaluative and critical. 水を出しっぱなしにしないでください。(Mizu o dashippanashi ni shinaide kudasai.) Don’t leave the water running. Also つけっぱなし, 開けっぱなし.
2. Continuing with no pause - neutral, about endurance. 一時間立ちっぱなしでした。(Ichijikan tachippanashi deshita.) I was standing the whole hour. Also 降りっぱなし.

Where まま is a neutral observation, っぱなし usually points a finger. Compare 窓を開けたまま出かけました (a fact) with 窓を開けっぱなしにして出かけました (careless of you).

Step 5 - とおり／どおり: exactly as. 〜とおり(に) means “in the way that…, just as…”. It takes a plain form, a た-form, or a noun:

• V-plain / V-た + とおりに - 私が言ったとおりにしてください。(Watashi ga itta tōri ni shite kudasai.) The た-form points at an instruction already given; the non-past 言うとおりに points at one being given now.
• Noun + の + とおりに - 説明のとおりにやりました。(Setsumei no tōri ni yarimashita.)
• Noun + どおりに - the same noun can attach directly, and then とおり undergoes rendaku (連濁) to どおり: 説明どおり, 予定どおり, 時間どおり, 希望どおり. This voicing is not optional: ×予定とおり -> ○ 予定どおり.

Two stock phrases to memorise whole: そのとおりです。 (Sono tōri desu.) Exactly, that’s right. And 思ったとおりです。 (Omotta tōri desu.) Just as I thought.

Step 6 - ずに: “without doing”, in writing. Take the ない-form, drop ない, add ずに: 行かない -> 行かずに ikazu ni; 食べない -> 食べずに tabezu ni; 来ない -> 来ずに kozu ni. The one irregular is する, whose base is せ, not し: しない -> せずに sezu ni (予約せずに, 何もせずに).

Meaning-wise ずに is identical to 〜ないで; the difference is register. ずに belongs to written Japanese, announcements, reports and careful speech; ないで is what you say to a friend. The bare form 〜ず (no に) is the fully literary variant and belongs to lesson 60.

Two limits: ずに cannot head a request (×行かずにください -> ○ 行かないでください), and in the “instead of X, Y” reading, where the two options are being explicitly weighed in conversation, ないで is the natural choice even though ずに is grammatical in written prose. The fixed pattern 〜ずにはいられない (“can’t help doing”) is B2 and waits in lesson 65.

Step 7 - ないで vs なくて vs ずに. The trap is that English “not …” covers all three. ないで and ずに give manner (“without doing X”). なくて gives cause (“because X didn’t happen”) and is also the only one that works on adjectives and nouns. See the last table below - this is the contrast to drill.

Forms & patterns

What まま attaches to:

Building っぱなし from the ます-stem:

とおり and its voiced twin どおり:

Making ずに, and the three-way contrast:

Examples

Common mistakes

• 電気をつけるまま寝ました。 (Denki o tsukeru mama nemashita.) -> 電気をつけたまま寝ました。 (Denki o tsuketa mama nemashita.) - まま needs the た-form. A state can only be left unchanged once it exists, so the change must already have happened.
• この町は昔ままです。 (Kono machi wa mukashi mama desu.) -> この町は昔のままです。 (Kono machi wa mukashi no mama desu.) - まま is a formal noun, so another noun links to it with の, exactly as with よう and こと.
• テレビをつけっぱなしました。 (Terebi o tsukeppanashi mashita.) -> テレビをつけっぱなしにしました。 (Terebi o tsukeppanashi ni shimashita.) - っぱなし produces a noun, not a verb. It needs にする, にしておく or です.
• 予約しずに行きました。 (Yoyaku shizu ni ikimashita.) -> 予約せずに行きました。 (Yoyaku sezu ni ikimashita.) - する is irregular before ず: the base is せ, never し. This one word is the whole irregularity.
• 会議は予定とおりに始まりました。 (Kaigi wa yotei tōri ni hajimarimashita.) -> 会議は予定どおりに始まりました。 (Kaigi wa yotei-dōri ni hajimarimashita.) - when a noun attaches directly, とおり voices to どおり. Keep とおり only after a verb or after noun + の.

Tips

• Three ways to leave something alone, and they are not neutral in the same way. 〜ておく (lesson 36) is deliberate - you left it on purpose, for a reason. 〜まま is neutral - it simply never changed. 〜っぱなし is accusatory - you should have changed it and didn’t. Same window, three attitudes: 開けておきました / 開けたままです / 開けっぱなしです.
• っぱなし hides the verb 放す. Once you see 放す hanasu (“let go, release”) inside it, つけっぱなし stops looking arbitrary: you switched it on and then let go of it. Keep it to the stock set - つけっぱなし, 出しっぱなし, 開けっぱなし, 立ちっぱなし - and be careful using the critical reading about anyone senior to you.
• ずに is a register dial, not a meaning dial. It never changes what the sentence says, only how formal it sounds. Read it everywhere in signs and documents, write it in essays, but say ないで. And remember there is no ×ずにください.
• そのとおりです is free conversational currency. It is the standard way to say “exactly, that’s right” when someone summarises your point correctly - and そのままで(いいです) is the standard way to say “leave it as it is, don’t get up”. Both are worth learning as whole words before you analyse them.