** disclaimer:
This is an exercise from way back in the day and it’s in form of a … pdf. I’ll eventually put it into a more modern web 3, AI modern as hell 2024 form, but please give it a shot now, too. It’s really helpful once you’re used to it.
***
Hello everyone,
and welcome to … well to… to our newly opened gym.
Pumpin’ German till your grammar-abs are rock solid.
Over the years, I have developed a fair amount of exercises of different kinds to train the most important issues of German Grammar.
And then, today, I thought, well I do have all these pdf-files sitting on my hard drive slowly collecting dust… why not share them? So share them I will.
And the first one is going to be the one for
“zu vs. um zu”
If you don’t know the rules yet, here is the article, I wrote on that.
It is long, but it’s not the size that matters, right? It’s how you use it.
The exercise is designed for repeated use… so you do NOT need to fill in the blanks nor do you need to turn to page 213 and hold the book upside down to check for the solutions (god, that is something that really annoys me in work books… I do NOT want to flip pages all the time)
Anyway… the solutions are given on the right so all you need to do is to cover them and you can train with the paper all the time… on the train, on the job or on the toilet. And if it turns out the latter lacks that certain paper you need to much, well, you have a paper right in your hand :) and German Grammar actually saved your day.
Now… here is how the page works. You will be given a first part of a sentence, for example:
- Ich gehe zum Kühlschrank,
The second part, the completion, will be given in the dictionary or infinitve form. Here is how it looks on the page.
- Ich gehe zum Kühlschrank : ein Bier holen. , um… zu…
The sentence is obviously supposed to mean:
- I go to the fridge to get a beer.
And you have to decide whether you need to use zu, um.. zu or nothing at all.
The correct choice in the example is um… zu, so after you have moved all the verbs into their place you should wind up with:
- Ich gehe zum Kühlschrank, um ein Bier zu holen.
Now the page is not wide enough to give the fully formulated solutions, so you will only see what form (zu, um zu, nothing) to use and not where the verb goes or how zu squeezes between a prefix and a basic verb.
But after all, it is an exercise to get a feeling of when to use which, so I hope it is helpful anyway. Oh… to make the training extra beneficial, read everything out loud and do it WITHOUT writing it down.
So.. here it is, have fun and give me some feedback, if that helped you or if you have question regarding the exercise.
Exercise – zu – um zu (pdf)
And for those of you who need one, here is a quick heads up on the rules.
Use um zu when:
- you can replace the English to with in oder to. If you do something
um zu do something else, that means that you do the first thing so
you can do the second thing after. Doing the first thing is a
prerequisite of doing the second.
- Ich gehe in die Küche um mir ein Beer zu holen
- I am going to the kitchen to (in order to) get myself a beer.
Use only zu when:
- You cannot replace to by in order to. To double check, ask yourself whether you can enter a room just saying the first part of the sentence and then leave. If the people in the room would be extremely confused by that… use zu. “Ich gehe in die Küche” is fine. The following not so much “Fuck, I forgot.”… what????? So here zu is what you need.
- Scheiße, ich habe vergessen, meinen Herd auszumachen.
- Crap, I forgot to turn off my stove.
Use nothing at all when:
- Your first verb is a GERMAN modal. The mechanics are similar in English. “I can go” doesn’t use to either. The only stumbling block is that German modal are different verbs than English modals. The German modals are:
können, wollen, müssen, sollen, dürfen, möchten, mögen - Ich will ein Eis essen.
- I want to eat an icecream.
These are the basics. For the complete set of rules…. here again the the article,.. good luck and see you next time.
Amazing tip! I’ve always confused when it comes to zu oder um-zu, but now the mystery’s solved!
Glad it helped :)!
Ich hab keine Fragen, will nur kurz sagen: noch einer banger Artikel!!
Danke dir :).
Nur zur Info… “bange” ist übrigens auch ein deutsches Wort, das etwas wie “anxious” oder “apprehensive”.
Also “banger” lieber nicht schriftlich verwenden, ich habe ein paar Sekunden gebraucht, um zu verstehen, dass du das englische Wort meinst.
Hi Emanuel – I came across this sentence:
Er gibt uns die Möglichkeit, uns zu entwickeln and thought it should be um uns zu entwickeln- but the more I thought the more I realized both could be right but with a slightly different meaning- uns zu entwickeln – the boss is developing us – um uns zu entwickeln – in order for us to develop ourselves –
What would you say?
Great example!!
It’s really not 100% clear and you’re right that both versions, with and without “um”, are working.
– … die Möglichkeit, uns zu entwickeln
Here, “uns zu entwickeln” specifies “die Möglichkeit”. It’s basically and answer to “what Möglichkeit”. The whole thing is one unit.
– … die Möglichkeit, um uns zu entwickeln.
Here, “die Möglichkeit” and the “um-zu” sentence are SEPARATE elements. “die Möglichkeit” is some sort of possibility that HAS to be clear in the context already (like “THIS possibility”) and “um uns zu entwickeln” answers to WHY the boss is giving the people this possibility.
Does that help?
Why does it feel like it would be right to only use “zu” for the example below?:
“Ich brauche immer viel Zeit, morgens wach zu werden.”
Instead of the proposed solution: “Ich brauche immer viel Zeit, um morgens wach zu werden”
I think I’m having this feeling because you could translate the sentence to “I always need a lot of time, to get ready in the morning”. Saying “in order to get ready in the morning” would sound superfluous/awkward in English.
Any credence to what I’m saying here or is the zu-only version just plain wrong?
Great question actually.
This particular example doesn’t actually feel all that wrong without the “um”. I think people do say it that way, too.
I totally agree that the “in order to”-test doesn’t work all that smoothly here.
Still, the waking up is more of an answer to “purpose” than it is a direct object.
– I need a lot of time.
– For what purpose?
And that’s why it’s better with “um zu”.
Have you read my article on “zu vs um zu”? I actually reworked it a few months ago, and there’s also a video version explaining it slightly differently than in this exercise.
I have not read that article. I grew up speaking baby German with my mom, and this is one of the few areas of German grammar that I feel I have decent Sprachgefühl on, so I wanted to test my skills without reading too much theory. I’ll give the article a read through now though to work on the rough patches.
Hey Emanuel. Thanks for the awesome and thorough article, as you always produce. By the way, I just realized from doing your exercises that you don’t really need to fill in the … in between um-zu, e.g., ich mache seit 2 Monaten Yoga, um zu entspannen.
Haha, yeah, that’s not so clear actually. I’m not sure what’s the best way to write it but I think having some sort of gap there is overall less confusing than writing them as a bulk. Anyway, you got it, so all good :)
Toller Artikel….danke fürs Zusammenstellen!
Are there differences in meaning in this two sentences (and are they correct/make sense)?
Ich will aufhören zu rauchen
Ich will rauchen aufzuhören
Vielen Dank
The second one is wrong. Think of the “zu rauchen” part as a separate unit. It defines the stopping. But the stopping is what you want.
In English, the second one would be something like
– I want to smoke to stop.
and that makes no sense.
Hope that helps.
Hallo. Could you please explain more this one: “Es dauert eine Weile, sich an das Wetter zu gewöhnen”.
Why is “um” not needed? Would it be correct to use “um zu” too?
Danke.
It doesn’t sound super wrong to use “um” but it’s not correct. The reason you don’t need it is that the weather part answers the question “what”. I have to give this article a massive overhaul, actually, because the way I explain is way too complicated :)
I don’t understand this one. Can the first clause be a standalone sentence? Isn’t the verb transitive and the sentence lacks an object?
Maria braucht immer ewig : sich schminken.
Great question!
“brauchen” doesn’t necessarrly need an object (I really dislike naming verbs transitive/intransitive for various reasons).
It can work with some sort of indication of duration.
– Ich brauche lange.
This is perfectly grammatical and as long as it’s clear what the people talk about, it doesn’t sound weird. It does sound weird if you walk into a room and just say that sentence, so here it fails the test I have made up.
Does that help a little?
Ich versuche zwei Mal meine Comment zu posten, aber postet es nicht..
Ich habe eine Frage auf um…zu. Muss man etwas zwischen um und zu stellen? Zum Beispiel ich mache seit zwei Monaten Yoga (entspannen). Ich wundere sich, ob um mich zu entspannen order um zu entspannen richtig ist.
Übrigens gibt es eine Folge auf Konjugation von niemand, jemand etc? In dem Satz ‘ Ich mache mein Radio leise, um niemanden zu stören. Warum niemanden statt niemand?
Danke sehr, tolle und klare Erklärung! Ich freue mich sehr, Deutsch von dir zu lernen
Deine Kommentare sind irgendwie im Spam-Ordner gelandet. Aber ab jetzt sollte alles gut funktionieren :).
Zu deiner Frage:
“um mich zu entspannen” und “um zu entspannen” ist beides richtig, da das “mich” bei “entspannen” optional ist. Was NICHT richtig wäre, ist:
– um zu entspannen mich /um zu mich entspannen
“um zu” kann direkt hintereinander kommen, aber NUR, wenn es nichts gibt, was dazwischen kann.
Dieses “en” bei “niemanden” habe ich noch nicht behandelt. Das ist auch echt kein großer Fehler. Mach dir darüber keine Gedanken. Wenn’s dich doch interessiert, dann such mal nach “n-Deklination” :)
Vielen Dank für deine klare Erklärung über zu und um…zu und *nichts*. Ich habe so viel gelernt :)
Ich habe eine Frage. In die Frage
Ich mache seit 2 Monaten Yoga, ‘um mich zu entspannen’, oder ‘um zu entspannen’?
Muss man etwas zwischen um und zu stellen?
übrigens wieso niemanden statt niemand im Beispiel ‘Ich mache mein Radio leise, um niemanden zu stören’? Gibt es eine Folge auf Konjugation von jemand/niemand.. etc?
Danke sehr !
Ich habe auf den anderen Kommentar geantwortet. Nur falls du es nicht mitgekriegt hast :)
I don’t undersand why the following sentences use zu und um…zu? I thought that with modal verbs we add nothing?
Ich will unbedingt aufhören : rauchen
Ich muss mich sehr beeilen : pünktlich zum Termin kommen
Danke!
Just answered the first comment, in case you don’t get a notification there :). I have to approve comments coming from anonymous sometimes, that’s why it didn’t show up right away.
I don’t understand why the following use zu und um…..zu? I thought that with modal verbs we do nothing?
Ich will unbedingt aufhören : rauchen
Ich muss mich sehr beeilen : pünktlich zum Termin kommen
Good question… the solution is that there are 3 verbs in the sentences:
– Ich will [aufhören] …
– Ich muss [mich beeilen]..
“aufhören” and “beeilen” are connected to the modal verbs and there’s no “zu” or “um zu” there. “rauchen” and “kommen” have nothing to do with the modal verbs. They’re dependent on “aufhören” and “beeilen”.
The modal verb doesn’t even “see” those because they’re kind of embeded in the other ones.
Let me know if that helps.
Thank you very much for this website , you have no Idea of how useful your explanations are , or maybe you do , anyway … THANK YOU
Hmm i don’t get it still.
If ‘We are born to be free’ is ‘Wir sind geboren, um frei zu sein’ – i’m having a hard time seeing how ‘We are born to be free’ can be used as ‘We are born in order to be free’. It makes sense, but it just doesn’t seem right in English. It makes it sound as though we are born with the specific intention of being free, as if we’re born to fulfil it as a duty or a task.
I hope i explained that right but it’s a difficult one to get across properly.
Yeah, I know what you mean… you shouldn’t take the whole “in order to”-stuff too strictly. Not every sentence will sound idiomatic when you put it in. If it doesn’t seem right, then try to see whether the abstract idea of “for what purpose, for what goal” makes sense. And if that doesn’t make sense, then try the party test. Actually… say the first part and then ask yourself what question someone could ask
– We are born
You could ask “Why”, which is definitely related to the whole “in order to”-idea.
– We try
Here, you’d ask “what” and that is a clear sign for just “zu”.
Maybe I should actually rework the post and put in some of the stuff from the comments. It’s almost 3 years old :).
Anyway, I hope that helps.
so this is the time of day to catch you on here!
das freut mich sehr “dann wäre es “native” gewesen”. Ich habe viele viele übung gemacht und jetzt ich kann fast alles verstehen. das ist nur wegen dir. vielen herzlichen dank!
As a side note, you know one other thing that has really helped me to understand the way german is put together/used… hearing germans speak english, gives a great insight into how they use their own language. Just thought i would throw that in there.
Oh das stimmt!!! Preying on other peoples mistakes is just great… especially for prepositions but also for sentence structure or mass nouns and so on… at least that worked very well for Italian for me :)
I know its been up for a while but im just after reading this and taking the test as well. What a great explanation and a handy sheet for reminding the uses of each.
Ich denke, dass ich deinen Blog weiter lesen muss, um mein Verständnis weiter zu bringen.
I hope it made sense :O
Perfect sense :)…. und du hast “weiter” verwendet… top. Hättest du es als ein Wort geschrieben, dann wäre es “native” gewesen.
… , um mein Verständnis weiterzubringen.
Freut mich, dass dir die Übung gefällt. Ich habe noch viel mehr, aber vielleicht hebe ich mir die auch für die Bücher auf.
Hoffe, du kannst alles lesen :)… wenn nich’, dann sag’ Bescheid und ich übersetze.
You explained that in a really good way. Thanks for that!
Hi, Thank you very much for your lesson. Great job. I we seen a lot of explanations, yours is just astonishing. Looking forward to see new ones.
German is Schverig, but after your explanation it gets Easy:))
Thanks for such a nice feedback .. das freut mich immer sehr :D
Ah, yes. Just in case you have not already heard this (Johnny) mnemonic …
Back in the day my “vintage” English teacher would say, “I smell ‘a rat’ in separate.”
Corny, but worked for me.
I still spell “occasion” wrong most of the time.
Nice one :)… I have misspelled this word about 14235 times now and counting… also in German by the way, don’t know why, but the rat is gonna help