When to use “damit” and “um … zu” in German
There are two different ways to say “in order to” in German. While working as an online German teacher, I realized that many students find it tricky to decide on one or the other. After reading this article, you will know when to use “damit” or “um … zu”.
How to say “in order to” in German
There are two different ways to say “in order to” or respectively “to” in German: “damit” and “um … zu”. Now, you might wonder when you should use which one and how you can build a sentence with them. Luckily, you found this article because I will explain everything in detail in the following.
Using “damit” in German
As you can see in the example, “damit” can be used the same way we would use “in order to” in English. If you use “damit”, the sentence's main verb needs to be put to the end (which we like to do with conjunctions in German, as you might already know). Also, “damit” allows you to start a sentence with it, as seen in the second example. Using damit, you can also name two subjects in both of your sentence parts (ich/wir).
For example:
“Ich gehe früh schlafen, damit wir morgen früh losfahren können”
“Damit wir morgen früh losfahren können, gehe ich früh schlafen.”
Recommended study materials on the topic:
Package: overview & exercises „damit“ & „um… zu…“ (incl. answers)
B-Grammar: Practice German grammar German (incl. answers)
German self-study book for A1-B1 (incl. answers)
________________________
Using “um …. zu” in German
This conjunction has the same meaning as “damit,” you can start your sentence with it or put it in the middle. The main difference is that when you use “um … zu”, you must use the same subject in the “um … zu” part, which y used in the main clause. So, if you want to use two different subjects, you must use “damit”. Another thing you need to take care of is that the verb in your sentence takes the position at the end. Also, you will need to use a “zu” followed by the infinitive form of the verb (sein in our example). Therefore, it is not changed according to the subject, as seen in the case above.
For example:
“Ich gehe zum Sport, um fit zu sein.”
“Um fit zu sein, gehe ich zum Sport.”
Now, that you know the difference between “damit” and “um … zu” you can confidently use both of them at the right time.
Bis bald!
Steffie
Hi there! Though I provide all blog content for free, your support will be very much appreciated. 🙂
Hi there, I'm Stefanie, the author of the blog post you're reading.
Please support my work!
Search blog