The #German conjunction “damit”

In my last grammar post, I talked about the infinitive construction “um…zu”. @kat_rees was wondering what the difference between “um…zu” and “damit” is.

The biggest difference is that “damit” is a conjunction. Conjunctions (subordinating conjunctions) introduce a subordinate clause, the part of a sentence that cannot stand by itself and is dependant on the main clause.

A subordinate clause starts with a conjunction like in this case “damit” and ends with a conjugated verb. The other sentence elements e.g. time, manner and place fall into the normal order.

e.g.

Ich arbeite, damit ich Geld verdiene.

I work so that I earn money.

“damit” translates to the English “so that” or “in order that”.

Now we know more about “um…zu” and “damit”. In my next post, I’ll give you examples for both.