Grammar › Timing & Sequence
〜か〜ないかのうちに — “just as, almost before…”
Says the second action began while the first was still barely finishing
Dictionary form + か + ない-form + ないかのうちに sandwiches a verb between its affirmative and negative forms to say the next event happened right on the boundary — so close to the first action's end that it's hard to say which finished first — “almost before X was even done, Y happened.”
How to form it
| Pattern | Example |
|---|---|
| Dictionary + か + nai-form + ないかのうちに | 始まるか始まらないかのうちに、終わってしまった — It ended almost before it had even started |
Example sentences
| Japanese | Reading | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| ベルが鳴るか鳴らないかのうちに、教室を飛び出した。 | べるがなるかならないかのうちに、きょうしつをとびだした。 beruganarukanaranaikanouchini、kyoushitsuwotobidashita。 | Almost before the bell had finished ringing, he'd bolted out of the classroom. |
| 目を閉じるか閉じないかのうちに、眠ってしまった。 | めをとじるかとじないかのうちに、ねむってしまった。 mewotojirukatojinaikanouchini、nemutteshimatta。 | I fell asleep almost before I'd even closed my eyes. |
| 席に着くか着かないかのうちに、電話が鳴った。 | せきにつくかつかないかのうちに、でんわがなった。 sekinitsukukatsukanaikanouchini、denwaganatta。 | Almost before I'd sat down, the phone rang. |
🔊 Tap any Japanese sentence to hear it; kanji link to their study pages.
Watch out
This pattern only works with the same verb repeated in both affirmative and negative form — it's a fixed sandwich structure, not a place to plug in two different verbs.