In this article we are going to look at one question a lot of students of German seem to have:
When to use zu and um zu and what is the system behind it….
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I have a question about gehen. At the beginning of the article you state that gehen is one of the words we don’t need zu or um zu. Yet, in this example;
ch gehe in die Küche, um mir ein leckeres, kaltes Bier aus dem riesigen Kühlschrank zu holen.
You used um zu—
Can you please explain what I probably didn’t quite grasp? Thank you
Good question!
So you’ll find plenty of examples like this:
– Ich gehe einkaufen.
– Ich gehe gleich schlafen.
Here, you cannot use um zu or zu.
You could also skip it for your example and say
– Ich gehe in die Kuche ein Bier holen.
The longer the second part gets, the more you need to switch to an um zu structure and the original example is just so long that it sounds off without one.
On a deeper level, it’s about what we’re connecting.
– Ich gehe schlafen.
– Ich gehe in die Kueche.
schlafen and in die Küche basically stand for the same thing: a location.
And both sentences would be kind of incomplete if we leave it out.
So when the verb has the role of a location, you do not use um zu. If the sentence by itself is complete like Ich gehe in die Kueche, then we can add a second action as “goal” via um zu.
There are more details about this in this article:
https://yourdailygerman.com/einkaufen-gehen-why-no-zu/
Does that help?
Hello Emanuel,
The “check” on the quiz and the “next” button isn’t working- therefore I couldn’t get answers and check my results.
Are you able to check this. Um besser zu lernen.
Could you tell me which device and browser you’re using? It works fine for me on desktop and phone, so I need some help finding the issue.
works on phone though, the problem is on pc
I only do these on my MAC
sorry for offtopic, you can delete this comment later but check the “Done” button at the bottom of lessons, because right now there’s no button here and “[wpc_button]” text instead
Yeah, I’m currently reworking the progress tracking. It should be back there now (and it’ll be much more motivating soon).
Thank you!
Thanks for the really insightful explanations.
Just wanted to clarify ‘zu’ and ‘um zu’ are not prepositions in here right? Danke
No, formally they’re classified as subordinating conjunctions in this context.
Nice one, as usual! I think you’ll like this video… https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y37XH4aQpvw
I do :D!
Hi Emanuel,
Thanks for the conclusive overview! I am from Germany, so I should know all about it already, but it is good to get it explained and to get the translation… For the exceptions, I have a few alternative translations:
The car was driving too fast [to read the license plate].
-> Das Auto ist zu schnell gefahren zum Lesen des Nummernschilds.
or
-> Das Auto ist zu schnell gefahren zum Nummernschildlesen.
or
-> Das Auto ist zum Nummernschildlesen zu schnell gefahren.
This lecture was too difficult [to understand].
-> Diese Vorlesung war zum Verstehen zu schwer.
Although your translations for the above are more natural, I think that “zu x zum Y” would be the direct translation of “too x to y”, and without exceptions.
I don’t know how to do that.
-> Ich weiß nicht, wie das zu tun ist.
“Ich weiß nicht, wie das zu machen ist” would also work, but I would think it is more natural to use “zu tun” here.
I don’t know when to stop.
-> Ich weiß nicht, wann anzuhalten.
or
-> Ich weiß nicht, wann aufzuhören.
or
-> Ich weiß nicht, wann zu stoppen.
I remember who to ask to get information.
-> Ich merke mir, wen ich fragen muss, um Informationen zu bekommen.
or
-> Ich weiß (noch), wen ich/man fragen muss, um Informationen zu bekommen.
or your translation.
The problem with “Ich erinnere mich wen zu fragen um Infos zu bekommen” is not the grammar, but that “wen” does not necessarily tanslate to “who” here. It could also be back-translated to “I remember to ask someone to get info”.
Regards,
Lukas
Hello Emanuel.
Regarding some normal verbs that don’t need “zu”, such as hören, sehen.
may I ask which sentences of these verbs are more proper?
In my opinion, the second sentence is more proper because both sentences consist of two actions “sehe” and “isst”. The box for action “isst” answers what-box for the action “sehe”.
I feel that the first sentence isn’t completed somehow when I try to create images in my brain (But I don’t know if it’s correct or not).
Thank you so much
Great question!
Both versions are correct, but the meaning is slightly different.
The first one is about you watching the process of the unicorn grazing, the second one sounds more focused on seeing/acknowledging the fact visually that the unicorn is grazing, but you’re not necessarily watching.
Hope that helps!
A quick follow question on the use of zu/um zu. If the ‘other verb’ is a (real) reflexive verb, does the reflexive pronoun go after the first verb?
This question came up in the context of the mysterious case of brauchen, but I guess its a general question:
ich möchte mich um dich kümmern – makes sense with modals/haben/sein
Ich brauche mich um dich nicht zu kümmern ???
(google wants me to put the nicht earlier but I want to put it in front second verb, but presumable before the zu as well, but is it correct to have the mich right after the brauche?)
Ich lese das, um mich um dich zu kümmern ??? I really had no idea here, and I’m not even sure which um is which!
Good Day Emanuel –
Doesn’t the following sentence answer the what(what was worth it to her)?
Ja. Aber das war es ihr wert, um dir Karen wegzunehmen.
Also since it’s an um zu construction the subject has to be the same both in both the main sentence and clause….I assume das is the subject in the main clause and it is implied in the clause?
thanks
Great example!
So the answer to “what” was worth it is actually the word “das”, which refers to something she has done in order to take take Karen away from “you”.
As for the subject… the grammatical subject is “es” but that’s NOT the implied subject of the um zu sentence. This is a nice example where the subjects actually don’t match up.
The construction felt a tiny bit weird when I read it first, but I wouldn’t call it wrong. The “actor” in the whole story is “she”, but the phrasing of the first sentence is such that “she” is in Dative (“ihr”).
Does that help?
You can think of the whole thing as
Hi –
Trying to grasp as to why this sentence has an um…zu construction…..
Keine gute Jahreszeit, um ohne Heizung zu sein.
it doesn’t appear to adhere to some of the rules outlined:
1. I don’t think “keine gute Jahreszeit“ can stand on its own?
2. I don’t feel like the um..zu.. is answering in order to or because I want?
Would be curious to get your take.
Thanks
Great example! This is kind of a misfit, indeed.
You can make it work if you modify it like this:
Now, we have a “goal” similar to “I’m going to the kitchen because I want to get a beer (in order to…).”
But ultimately, having NO “um” would be more logical overall. I’d take this one as an actual exception, for which the tests do not work.
Why is the unicorn essen rather than fressen?
Because they’re self aware and have good table manners :).
By the way… for most animals, you’d indeed use fressen, but for a cat for example, being as picky as they usually are, many people tend to use essen.
Hi Emanuel,
Forgive me if you covered it already, but I didn’t see mention of “da-” clauses. In such cases where we use an infinitive in a da- clause, do we use “zu” with it? For example: Ich träume davon, nach Deutschland zu fahren.
True! I forgot to include an example for those. They totally tie in with the system though as you can ask for them using “preposition+what”.
– Ich träume davon, ….
– You’re dreaming of/about what?
So we’re asking for an object, only that this time it comes with a preposition.
Does that help?
Yes, thanks! As you said, it conforms to your rule.
Emanuel, hier bin ich wieder.. :-) Ich schreibe dir nach allem was ich tue, weil ich dich dafür bewundere, wie besonders und Leidenschaftlich du bei deiner Arbeit bist weil du, selbst wenn ich so einen berührenden Arbeitstag hatte, wirklich finde immer einen schlauen Weg mich zum lachen zu bringen…!!!!! Ich habe heute Abend mein Deutsch verblüfft und eher als der Unterricht ist ein bisschen schwierig :-/ du findest immer den Weg, mich zu entspannen und fröhlich zu sein :-) . Nicht viele guys hätten so etwas geschafft…you rock!!!! Ich habe das Quiz gemacht und ich werde ihnen ehrlich sagen, ich habe 2 Fehler gemacht. Ich habe die lange Übung noch nicht gemacht. Ich werde nächste Woche mit der anderen turbo-Übung von Relativ Pronomen machen, die du mir so klugerweise empfohlen hast, zu wiederholen. Ich mache beides netto eine Woche, wegen der Bewegung die du machst uns ich gebe dir gerne etwas Entspannung um the movation zu machen :-) Der Unterricht war so perfekt und ideal wie du und macht mich auch, auch wenn es schwer ist, entspannen!!!!! Hab eine sehr sehr süße Nacht Emanuel :-》
Emanuel sorry for my german in my Massage above, but I’ve just noticed today, that from a point and then my german were realy confused and had no a specific meaning..I think, I will never learn not to make mistakes and write thinks no one understands :-( ( I ment, because of the move you told you have to do, I thought it would be better, even if I do again that big exercise of pronouns or if I want to write any other comment to you, to do it next week, you will be more relax and comfortable, in other words, to give some space to do your houseworks… I am really bad student..!! All the others I hope they are written in correct german, because they are true..Will spend 100 years until I learn to speak german right!!!!! And also the very sweet goodnight is still in valid! :-) (sorry again for my silly german, I’m traying to express myself, what I think or what I fell in this beloved language, but it’s very difficult to find the correct words every time)
Hallo
Danke fuer den Artikel! Ich nehme an, dass der Grund, warum dieser Satz eine “um..zu” Konstruktion verwendet, der ist, dass alles bis zum “um” fuer sich selbst stehen kann?
Nach meinem Studienabschluss hatte ich 18 Monaten lang Zeit, um einen neuen Job zu finden.
Danke
Ja, so kannst du es sehen. Aber noch klarer ist es, wenn du überlegst, welche Frage beantwortet wird.
“For what purpose did I have 18 months?”
Und das ist dann klar “um… zu”. Wie im Video erklärt.
Bezüglich Formulierungen wie “Ich sehe das Einhorn Gras fressen,” hast du das jemals in einem weiteren Artikel angesprochen? Ich habe ein paar Fragen, und zwar*, mit welchen anderen Verben funktioniert das? Kann man diese Formulierung benutzen, um etwas wie “I stay up late studying” zu sagen? Mein armes, versuchendes auf Deutsch zu denken** Gehirn will stattdessen eine Konstruktion wie “beim Studium,” aber ich würde gern noch wissen, ob es möglich ist.
Schließlich, wie wäre es im Perfekt? “Ich habe das Einhorn Gras fressen gesehen”?
*Ich habe kein richtiges Sprachgefühl für diesen Begriff, bitte entschuldige mich, während ich ihn unbeholfen ausprobiere
**Ebenso habe ich keine Ahnung wie man das konstruiert, und zwar nicht einmal eine Ahnung wie man solch ein Konzept googelt
Tut mir leid, ich habe grad eben bemerkt, dass Einhorne nicht fressen, sondern essen. Keine absichtliche Beleidigung, Einhorne!
XD
Guck mal hier:
https://yourdailygerman.com/einkaufen-gehen-no-zu-rule/
Das ist nicht genau zu deiner Frage, aber es könnte trotzdem helfen.
Aber nein, du kannst diese Formulierungen nicht generalisieren. Das wird oft falsch werden.
Und zu der Vergangenheit… du hattest es fast richtig, aber das “ge” muss weg.
– .. Gras fressen sehen.
Vielen Dank :)
The article itself is great. Enmanuel explains so well that one feels he is just in person trying to make the lesson so enjoyable and useful for all. Well done .. I enjoyed it.
But please make sure you produce the solutions to the Quizes.
I believe that it is a good pedagogical thing for self-study, that all Quizes have their solutions. I had three questions wrongs in the Quiz about zu and um-zu subject. So, I wasted my time and effort guessing to do this test three times to no avail. So, the idea of the self-study is to have help from the site not to reduce one’s energy and interest trying to get the answers right.
Hey hey, thanks for the feedback! You can actually see all the answers at the end of the quiz on the results page, you just have to click “view questions”.
However, I think you’re right overall and I have now changed the settings so every question is checked immediately and you get to see the answer right away.
Had a minor crisis on Q10 because I was about to click “They’re all correct.” but the question asked for a false statement, but it’s true that they are all correct. It was a real head scratcher for a second there ;)
Whoops, that’s a really weird phrasing indeed :D. Obviously I meant to ask for the “correct” element. I changed it now, thanks for the heads-up :)
I think I have a way to use the What/zu and Why/um zu. In the examples you gave below the what is the car is going too fast. The why is more why do I care or why does it matter, because I couldn’t read the plate.
The lesson was hard. That is the what. Why does it matter? Because I couldn’t understand it.
Does that sound reasonable to you?
Das Auto ist zu schnell gefahren, [um das Nummernschild zu lesen].
Diese Lektion war zu schwierig [zu verstehen].
I think you got it. Using the word “why” is a bit confusing for the car-example, but the broader sense of “goal” is in there.
I want to read the license plate… that’s my “goal”. The car can be slow enough so I can do that. Or it’s too fast.
Maybe use “for what” instead of “why”. That also works in the kitchen-example you mentioned in the other comment :).
You had said that you couldn’t figure out a way of connecting those sentences to the what/why rule you laid out. I thought about what for but I was trying to follow the what/why construction so I manipulated it to be why instead of what for.