Expressing Purpose
Expressing Purpose
Purpose in Dutch runs from the everyday om ... te up to the bureaucratic ter voorkoming van, where a preposition and a nominalized verb replace a whole clause. The register shift is dramatic.
Grammar Comparison
Grammar Comparison
om te for a shared subject, zodat for a different one
Ik bel je om het uit te leggen. / Ik bel je, zodat je het weet.
I'm calling you to explain it. / I'm calling you so that you know.
om ... te requires that the purpose belongs to the same subject as the main clause — I call, I explain. If the purpose concerns someone else, you need a full clause with zodat: I call so that you know. English blurs this with 'to' and 'so that' used interchangeably, so it is worth checking who is doing what before choosing.
teneinde and opdat: formal purpose
teneinde de kosten te beperken / opdat er geen misverstand ontstaat
in order to limit the costs / so that no misunderstanding arises
teneinde is the formal counterpart of om ... te and keeps the same te-infinitive frame. opdat is the formal counterpart of zodat and introduces a clause with the verb at the end. Both belong to written and official language; using them in conversation sounds as odd as English 'in order that' at a dinner table.
ter + nominalization compresses a purpose clause into a phrase
ter voorkoming van fraude, ter ondersteuning van het plan
to prevent fraud, in support of the plan
Bureaucratic Dutch replaces the whole clause with ter or ten plus a nominalized verb and van: ter voorkoming van, ter bevordering van, ten behoeve van. ter and ten are fossilized dative forms of the article, so they cannot be analysed by modern rules — they simply come with the phrase. English does something comparable with 'for the prevention of', but Dutch uses this device far more, and recognizing it is essential for reading official documents.
Vocabulary
Vocabulary
- English
- in order to
- English
- so that
- English
- in order to (formal)
- English
- in order to prevent
- English
- for the benefit of
- English
- with a view to
- English
- the aim
- English
- to aim at
- English
- to limit
- English
- to promote
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