om ... te + Infinitive
om ... te + Infinitive
Where English uses a bare 'to' before an infinitive, Dutch often needs a frame: om at the front of the phrase and te immediately before the verb, with everything else packed in between.
Grammar Comparison
Grammar Comparison
om ... te expresses purpose — 'in order to'
Ik ga naar de winkel om brood te kopen.
I'm going to the shop to buy bread.
English can express purpose with a bare infinitive: 'to buy bread'. Dutch marks it with a bracket — om opens the phrase, te sits directly in front of the verb, and the object goes between them: om brood te kopen. The whole phrase normally comes at the end of the sentence. Whenever your English sentence means 'in order to', Dutch will want om ... te.
te without om after certain verbs
Ik probeer te slapen. Hij begint te lachen.
I'm trying to sleep. He's starting to laugh.
A group of verbs — proberen, beginnen, vergeten, weigeren, hopen, beloven — takes te and no om. Meanwhile the modal verbs and a few others (kunnen, moeten, willen, mogen, gaan, komen, laten, zien, horen) take a bare infinitive with no te at all: Ik wil slapen. So Dutch has three patterns where English has essentially one, and which pattern a verb takes has to be learned with the verb.
om ... te after adjectives and impersonal expressions
Het is leuk om samen te koken. Het is te koud om te zwemmen.
It's fun to cook together. It's too cold to swim.
After het is + adjective, Dutch uses om ... te: Het is moeilijk om Nederlands te leren. The om is sometimes dropped in careful writing (Het is moeilijk Nederlands te leren), but including it is normal and safe in speech. The 'too ... to' construction works the same way, with te doing double duty as both 'too' and the infinitive marker: te koud om te zwemmen.
Vocabulary
Vocabulary
- English
- in order to
- English
- to try
- English
- to begin
- English
- to forget
- English
- to hope
- English
- to promise
- English
- difficult
- English
- nice / fun
- English
- It's time to go
- English
- enough
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