Purpose Clauses: damit vs. um...zu
Purpose Clauses: damit vs. um...zu
German picks between two constructions for 'in order to' based on a rule English doesn't have at all: whether the person doing the purpose-action is the same as the person in the main clause.
Grammar Comparison
Grammar Comparison
Same subject → um...zu; different subjects → damit
Ich lerne Deutsch, um in Deutschland zu arbeiten. / Ich gebe dir das Buch, damit du es liest.
I'm learning German in order to work in Germany. / I'm giving you the book so that you read it.
In the first sentence, the same person (ich) both learns German and works in Germany, so um...zu is used and the subject is never repeated. In the second sentence, the giver (ich) and the reader (du) are different people, so um...zu is grammatically impossible here — there's no way to attach a second subject to a zu-infinitive — and damit, which introduces a full clause with its own subject, is required instead. English 'in order to' and 'so that' don't enforce this distinction at all, so the natural instinct is to default to whichever one sounds right in English, which will be wrong about half the time in German.
um...zu word order: um opens the clause, zu + infinitive closes it
um in Deutschland zu arbeiten
in order to work in Germany
Everything that would normally come between the subject and the verb (here, in Deutschland) sits between um and zu + infinitive, with the infinitive always coming last. English keeps 'to work' together as a tight unit up front ('in order to work in Germany'), while German splits its equivalent apart, holding the infinitive until the very end of the phrase.
damit is an ordinary subordinate clause: verb-final
..., damit du es liest.
..., so that you read it.
Once you've decided damit is needed (different subjects), it behaves exactly like weil, dass, or obwohl: the finite verb (liest) goes to the very end of the clause. There's nothing new to learn about damit's internal word order beyond the general subordinate-clause rule you already know — the only new decision is choosing damit over um...zu in the first place.
Vocabulary
Vocabulary
| German | Pronunciation | English |
|---|---|---|
| damit | DAH-mit | so that (different subjects) |
| um ... zu | oom ... tsoo | in order to (same subject) |
| um Deutsch zu lernen | oom doytsh tsoo LAIR-nen | in order to learn German |
| um es zu verstehen | oom es tsoo fair-SHTAY-en | in order to understand it |
| das Ziel | dahs tseel | the goal |
| der Zweck | dair tsvek | the purpose |
| zu diesem Zweck | tsoo DEE-zem tsvek | for this purpose |
| absichtlich | AHP-zikht-likh | on purpose/deliberately |