German zu + Infinitive: um zu, ohne zu, statt zu Explained
By Michael McGettrickUpdated 27 September 2026
Most German verbs that introduce a second action want that action fenced off with , and the fence always goes up in the same place: directly before the infinitive, which sits at the very end of its clause.
English does something similar with to (I hope to see you), so the idea is not new. What is new is how consistently German applies it, and how completely it fails to apply it to one very common group of verbs, the modals, which is exactly where English speakers tend to get it wrong. This structure is on the AQA GCSE German (8662) specification at Higher tier.
Verbs that take zu + infinitive
A long list of everyday German verbs send a following infinitive to the end of the clause with glued on:
- hoffen (to hope):
, .- I hope to see you soon. - versuchen (to try):
, .- I am trying to be on time. - beginnen / anfangen (to begin):
.- It is starting to rain. - vergessen (to forget):
, die .- Don't forget to close the door. - planen (to plan):
, .- We are planning to travel in the summer.
German usually sets a -infinitive off with a comma once it has anything more than and the verb, as every example above does: , (comma) . A bare + verb can drop the comma ( ), and with um, and the comma is compulsory; in the other cases adding it is rarely wrong, and it makes a long sentence far easier to read.
More zu-verbs, and the impersonal es ist... zu pattern
The list of verbs that take is genuinely long, and a handful more come up constantly enough to learn early alongside and :
- aufhören (to stop):
.- The rain is stopping. - beschließen (to decide, to resolve):
, .- She decides to drive home. - sich freuen (to be glad; with
, to look forward to):, .- I am pleased to see you.
German also builds a common impersonal pattern with plus an adjective plus and an infinitive, roughly matching English it is... to...:
, .- It is important to read a lot., .- It is easy to learn German., .- It is difficult to get up early.
Here is a placeholder standing in for the infinitive clause that follows ( says the same thing without it); the real content of the sentence is that infinitive clause, and marks it exactly the way it marks every other zu-infinitive in this article.
The exception that matters most: modal verbs never take zu
German modal verbs work completely differently. , , , , and all send a bare infinitive to the end, with no anywhere in sight:
.- I can swim..- I have to go.will .- I want to read the book.
A few other verbs also take a bare infinitive: in the future tense ( ), ( reparieren), and verbs of motion and perception such as , and ( , ). They are a short list; the modals are the ones you will use constantly.
English speakers who have just learned the -rule sometimes overcorrect and write ich kann zu schwimmen, which is wrong in the opposite direction from forgetting after . The two groups of verbs, modals and zu-verbs, behave as complete opposites, and there is no way to guess which a new verb belongs to except learning it with its pattern.
um...zu: in order to
Um... builds a purpose clause: it says why the action in the main clause happens. Um opens the clause, the rest of its content sits in the middle, and plus the infinitive close it:
, um in Berlin .- I am learning German in order to work in Berlin.Er , um .- He is calling me in order to help me., um .- She is saving money in order to buy a car.
English can compress this to a bare to (I am learning German to work in Berlin), which tempts a learner to drop um as well. German never drops it: a purpose clause without um is simply missing its opening word, not a shorter version of the same sentence.
Um... only works when the subject of both halves is the same person. , um in Berlin only makes sense because the person learning German and the person who will work in Berlin are the same ich. If the two subjects differ, German switches to with its own conjugated verb: , (I am calling so that you know).
ohne...zu: without doing something
... reports an action that did not happen alongside one that did, again for a single shared subject:
Er , .- He leaves without paying., klopfen.- She comes in without knocking., .- I cannot read this without wearing my glasses.
The structure mirrors um... exactly: opens it, whatever belongs to the infinitive sits in the middle, plus the infinitive close it. And exactly like um..., it needs one shared subject. Two different subjects need : Er , merke (He leaves without me noticing), which keeps a fully conjugated verb (merke) rather than an infinitive, because now there are two separate happenings to report rather than one action shadowed by an absent one.
statt...zu: instead of doing something
... (also written anstatt...) swaps in an action that happened for one that was expected instead:
, .- She is watching television instead of working., .- We are staying at home instead of going to the cinema.Er , zuzusehen.- He is helping me instead of just watching.
Same shape again, same one-subject condition, and the same escape hatch for two subjects: , with its own conjugated verb.
Put side by side, the three linking words share one skeleton, and once you have learned it for one you have learned it for all three:
| word | meaning | example |
|---|---|---|
um... | in order to | um |
... | without doing | |
... | instead of doing | |
Separable verbs: zu goes inside the verb
A separable verb such as (to get up) or (to call) does not simply pick up in front of it. The prefix and the stem stay joined as one written word, and slides in between them:
->:, .- I am trying to get up early.->:, .- Don't forget to call me.->:, .- I have no time to go shopping.
This is the same doing the same job as everywhere else in this article; it has simply found a home in the middle of a word that was always going to split into two pieces anyway. If a verb is inseparable, like or , this question never arises, because there is no separable prefix for to slot inside: , .
Chaining: more than one zu-infinitive in a sentence
Nothing stops a sentence combining two of the patterns above, and doing so is common in natural German once you get past the shortest example sentences:
, um , um .- I am trying to get up at six in order to be on time.Er , , merken.- He often forgets to call, without noticing it.
Each -infinitive clause behaves exactly as it would on its own; German simply lets one main clause carry several of them, each introduced and closed the same way. Reading a long German sentence like this becomes far easier once you can spot where one -infinitive clause ends (at its comma) and the next begins.
Mistakes English speakers make
Adding after a modal verb. ich kann zu schwimmen is an overcorrection: English never says I can to swim either, but the habit leaks over from verbs like . Modals never take , full stop.
Dropping after , and similar verbs. Ich hoffe, dich sehen skips the fence the verb needs. Outside the modals and the short list of bare-infinitive verbs above, the infinitive almost always wants in front of it.
Leaving out um in a purpose clause. Ich lerne Deutsch, in Berlin zu arbeiten tries to translate to work directly and loses the word that makes the clause make sense. Um has to open it.
Writing in front of a separable verb instead of inside it. zu aufstehen puts the two halves in the wrong order; the correct form fuses them into , one word, in the middle.
Using ... or ... with two different subjects. These constructions assume the same person does both things. Once a sentence needs a second subject, reach for or and a fully conjugated verb instead.
What to do next
Learn and first, since they are two of the commonest zu-verbs and give you an immediate way to talk about plans and hopes. Then take um... on its own, because purpose clauses (in order to) come up in nearly every conversation about goals, and only once that feels solid, add ... and ..., which share its shape exactly. The German course introduces these constructions once the vocabulary for everyday plans and routines is in place, so you will meet doing real work rather than as an abstract rule.