Purpose clauses: um … zu and damit
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