One of structures that derived me semi-crazy is damit. Hi there! Though I provide all blog content for free, your support will be very much appreciated. I am still learning German, and I face sometime structure problems as the language has a very strict structure to be followed. zu ' in order to ' damit is often used with knnen : Er empfiehlt. Now, that you got to know the difference between “damit” and “um … zu” you can confidently use both of them at the right time. ( b ) Something was done in order to make something else possible damit ' so that um. Therefore, it is not changed according to the subject as you can see in the case above. Also, you will need to use a “zu” which is followed by the infinitive form of the verb (sein in our example). Another thing that you need to take care of is, that the verb in your sentence takes the position at the end of the sentence. So, if you want to use two different subjects, you need to use “damit”. The main difference is that when you use “um … zu”, you have to use the same subject in the “um … zu” part, which y used in the main clause. The verb in the final relative clause is conjugated and comes at the end of the sentence.
This conjunction has the same meaning as “damit,” and you can also start your sentence with it or put it in the middle. The main difference that sets apart German sentence structure from that of English is that German is an OV (Object-Verb) language, whereas English is a VO. It is introduced with the word damit and separated from the superordinate clause with a comma. Using damit, you are also able to name two different subjects in both of your sentence parts (ich/wir). Also, “damit” allows you to start a sentence with it, as you can see in the second example. If you use “damit”, the main verb of the sentence needs to be put to the end (which we like to do with conjunctionsin German as you might already know). If they are different you must use damit. “ Damit wir morgen früh losfahren können, gehe ich früh schlafen.”Īs you can see in the example, “damit” can be used the same way, we would use “in order to” in English. Using the um.zu or the damit forms depends on the subjects in the clauses. Conjunctions introduce a sentence, and so must be at the beginning of the sentence. “Ich gehe früh schlafen, damit wir morgen früh losfahren können” In German grammar, prepositions are followed by a noun (which could be in the accusative, dative or genitive form depending on the preposition). Luckily, you found this article because I will explain everything in detail in the following. Now, you might wonder when you should use which one and how you can build a sentence with them. There are two different ways to say “in order to” or respectively “to” in German: “damit” and “um … zu”. After reading this article, you will know when to use “damit” or “um … zu ”. While working as an online German teacher, I realized that many students find it tricky to decide on one or the other. Final clauses are dependent on a superordinate clause in which an action or process is usually being described.
There are two different ways to say “in order to” in German.