Learn English Grammar: Infinitives of Purpose

Hey.

Why are you here?

Are you here to learn English?

Are you here to improve your grammar and your vocabulary?

You are.

Wonderful, because I'm here to teach you.

Hey, everyone.

I'm Alex.

Thanks for clicking, and welcome to this grammar lesson on "Infinitives of Purpose".

So, today I'm going to try and fix a very common error that some students make when

they are first learning English, specifically students from Latin-speaking countries, but

other countries as well.

So, what am I talking about?

Now, look here: Ask "Why?" or "For what purpose?" and add "to" plus the base verb to give more

information.

Now, what does this mean?

By itself it seems confusing, but basically if you can make a statement, if you can make

a sentence and you can ask: "Why?" at the end of that sentence or: "For what purpose?

For what reason?" you can actually give more information-okay?-by adding "to" plus the

base verb.

And I'm going to tell you what people usually do or sometimes do that's wrong in this case.

So, for example, first sentence.

Let's imagine this is the sentence.

"I go to the gym."

Perfect sentence.

Wonderful.

But if you want to make that sentence longer, if you want to give more information, if you

want to tell people why you go to the gym, you can add "to" plus the base verb.

An infinitive of purpose.

So: "I go to the gym to stay healthy."

Okay?

Now, again, some people usually replace "for"...

Use "for" instead of "to" in this situation.

So I'm just going to focus and tell you guys: Use "to" in these situations.

Okay?

So, repeat after me: "I go to the gym to stay healthy."

Beautiful.

Next: "She called me."

Why did she call you?

Okay?

If you can ask: "Why did she call you?"

So: "She called me to ask a question."

That's why she called me.

Okay?

"He brought his laptop."

Why?

For what purpose?

"He brought his laptop to help him study."

So, he has all his notes there and that's what helps him study.

Next: "You have to leave now."

Why do I have to leave now?

"You have to leave now to get there on time."

All right?

Next: "I can watch movies."

For what purpose?

"Well, I can watch movies to increase my vocabulary if I'm learning a new language."

Next: "They moved here."

Why did they move here?

What's this? "...in order to get a better job", and there's a star on this one, which

means it's special.

Now, the reason I put a star here is because you noticed I put: "in order to", which basically

means "for the purpose of".

So, in all of these situations, to sound a little more formal you could actually add

"in order" before you do the "to" plus base verb structure.

So, you could say: "She called me in order to ask a question.", "I go to the gym in order

to stay healthy."

All of these are also possible and it sounds a little more formal.

Okay?

I don't know why it's more formal, but it just is for this lesson.

Okay?

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Next: "I've been reading a lot of books."

Great.

Why?

"I've been reading a lot of books to learn new things."

Sure, sounds good.

And finally we have: "She goes to work."

Why does she go to work?

"She goes to work to provide a better life for her kids."

Okay, now I want to focus on two of these that are a little special, so let's look at

this one: "She goes to work to provide a better life for her kids."

Now, you might be wondering: "Wait.

I have 'to' here and 'to' here.

Can I say 'to' hmm, 'to' hmm?"

Absolutely.

So, here you have...

You're going to a place.

Right?

You're going to work, to your place of work, your office, your office building to do something.

And here, different kind of situation, but similar idea in terms of one of the words:

"You have to leave now to get there on time."

You have two actions back to back here.

So: "You have to leave to get there on time."

So it is possible for you to have "to" plus base verb, "to" plus base verb.

Okay?

So, for example: "I like to sing to improve my voice.

I like to sing to improve my voice."

So, you can say: -"I like to sing."

-"Why do you like to sing?"

-"I like to sing to improve", so you can do: "to do, to do", completely possible.

Okay.

So, let's just do all of these guys one more time, and this time you guys can read along

with me and repeat the sentences.

See if you can say them fluently, perfectly with excellent pronunciation.

First one: "I go to the gym to stay healthy."

Second one: "She called me to ask a question."

Third one: "He brought his laptop to help him study."

Fourth one: "You have to leave now to get there on time."

Okay.

Next: "I can watch movies to increase my vocabulary.", "They moved here in order to get a better

job.", "I've been reading a lot of books to learn new things.", "She goes to work to provide

a better life for her kids."

Okay, good.

So, remember: If you can ask the question: "Why?" or "For what purpose?" after you make

a sentence, you can actually make that sentence a little longer if you just add "to" plus

the base verb.

If you want to talk about, you know: "Why are you doing this?" or "Why did you do this?"

I went to the gym to pick up my son.

Maybe your son went to the gym earlier.

-"Why did you go to the gym?"

-"I went to the gym to pick up my son", for example.

All right, if you want to test your understanding of this material, as always, you can check

out the quiz on www.engvid.com.

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So, til next time, guys, thanks for clicking.