Purpose clauses: um … zu and damit
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Learn to express goals and intentions with um … zu or damit. Choose the structure from the subjects and place the verb correctly.
Explanation
Expressing a purpose
Use um … zu and damit to answer Wozu? (for what purpose?).
Ich fahre früher los, um pünktlich anzukommen. Ich schreibe dir die Adresse, damit du den Ort findest.
um … zu
Use um … zu + infinitive when the same person performs both actions. Do not repeat the subject in the infinitive phrase. Put zu before the infinitive; with separable verbs it goes between prefix and stem: um einzukaufen.
damit
Use damit + subordinate clause, especially when the clauses have different subjects. The conjugated verb goes at the end: Wir sprechen langsam, damit alle uns verstehen.
With the same subject, both can often work, but um … zu is usually shorter.
Purpose or reason?
damit gives an intended result; weil gives a reason. Ask Wozu? for purpose and Warum? for reason.
Exercises
- Sort the sentence pairs: same subject → um … zu; different subjects → damit. (2)
- Complete with um, zu, damit, or weil. Distinguish purpose from reason. (4)
- Combine the two statements into one purpose sentence. Write a complete sentence. (11)
B1 · German · Grammar