An Unexpectedly Complex B1 Topic

(OK, not a great heading). Reasons, Intentions and Results

You’d think that it is pretty easy to express reasons, intentions and results (and it is) but the more you delve into this topic, the more complex it seems to get. Here’s what I’m trying to explain, if you’re looking for the TLDR.¹

If all that looks a little complex, then you’ve understood what I’m trying to say, it’s worth getting your head around the different distinctions between reasons, intentions and consequences, especially if you’re at the B1 level. So let’s get going

Intro

This is something I notice with A2 learners all the time: they can tell you what they’re doing, no problem, but when you ask ‘warum?’—why—they freeze up. And not just because most people don’t really have any idea at all why they do what they do. No, being able to give reasons, explain intentions, and name up results or consequences is another one of the important distinctions between A2 and B1. Today were looking at the words and structures that B1 speakers use to connect ideas—and once you’ve got these, your German is going to sound way more natural and way more fluent.

If you’re thinking to yourself, what’s he on about, it’s really easy to express reasons, we just use the conjunction weil. True, that works, but there’s a bit more to it than that. Here’s what I mean, have you ever really thought about the distinction between these three things: reasons or explanations, purposes or intentions and consequences, and then to make things even more confusing there’s not only the usual intended consequences, but also unintentional ones. See what I mean, we’re B1 now, so there’s quite a bit more nuance for us to be thinking about now.

Reasons

First up are those reasons or explanations. What we’re trying to do here is explain WHY, aren’t we? We want to be able to give explanations for certain states or actions. You know this already. This is when we’re using weil or denn. Let’s get some examples:

Sie kommt morgen vorbei, weil ich Hilfe brauche. She’s calling by tomorrow, because I need help.

We’re presenting a reason, an explanation aren’t we (using weil which requires us to put the verb at the end of the second clause). I need help, so this is WHY she’s coming.

Of course, you could also use denn—which is perhaps easier to use, but is actually not used so often when speaking, and is maybe a little more formal or literary.

Sie kommt morgen vorbei, denn sie ist ein sehr fürsorglicher Mensch. She’s coming around tomorrow because she is a very caring person.

With denn, we’ve got two main clauses, and actually this form is a little bit less flexible because you are very unlikely to start your sentence with denn, but you could start your sentence—especially when speaking with weil.

Weil ich kein Auto habe, holt sie mich morgen ab. Because I don’t have a car, she’s going to pick me up tomorrow.

I’m starting with the explanation and we could do the same thing with the slightly more formal word—especially if we’re writing—da. This might be a good equivalent of since and it’s also subordinating.

Da sie viel Sport treibt, ist sie sehr fit. Since she does a lot of sport, she’s very fit.

Again, we’re framing this as a reason or an explanation of why she’s fit. We’ve thought about explanations, let’s think about intentions.

Intentions

Yes, I know. Intentions: this sounds like why we are doing something. And to some extent this is true, but let me see if I can explain:

Let’s go back to the sentence we had earlier.

Sie kommt morgen vorbei, weil ich Hilfe brauche.

What’s the intention here? You might say, to help me. But no, this is a connection that we are making in our own heads. (Man weiß ja nicht unbedingt, dass sie vorhat, mir zu helfen). You have drawn this conclusion yourself. Nowhere does it say that she intends helping me. She’s only coming around because I need help, not because she’s necessarily going to help me. To express intentions, we use another structure.

Sie kommt morgen vorbei, um mir zu helfen.

Now, with this sentence we’re making a direct connection between:

• what she’s doing and

• what she’s intending.

Another way to think about it is the purpose. Helping me is the purpose of her visit. Let’s look at that other sentence?

Da sie viel Sport treibt, ist sie sehr fit.

This sounds a bit like an intention doesn’t it. Her purpose for doing lots of sport is to stay fit: Das stimmt, aber in diesem Satz wird diese Absicht nicht betont. Wenn wir sie betonen möchte, dann kann man die Idee so formulieren. We’re not emphasising the intention. If that’s what we want to emphasise, then we need to use a different structure.

Sie macht viel Sport, um fit zu sein, oder um fit zu bleiben.

There’s a different emphasis here isn’t there, she’s doing the sport in order to become fit. This is a clear intention and it’s this kind of thing that makes the distinction between A2 and B1.

Another quick example because we’ve got something important coming up:

Sie holt mich ab, um mich mit aufs Konzert zu bringen. She’s picking me up to take me to the concert.

No I don’t know whether you’ve noticed, but in both of these clauses, SHE—who ever she might be—is the subject.

• Sie macht viel Sport

• Sie will fit sein

And in the second sentence:

• Sie holt mich ab

• Sie bringt mich mit aufs Konzert

But, what if the sentence was a bit different? Like for example:

• Action: She’s going to pick me up.

• Purpose: So that I don’t have to catch the bus.

Two clauses, and two different subjects.

Can we use um…zu to describe this intention, the purpose? Of course the answer is no: Here’s what we do:

Sie holt mich ab, damit ich nicht mit dem Bus fahren muss.

Two clauses, two different subjects. One intention.

Or:

Sie hilft mir, damit ich nicht selber kochen muss.

The intention of this help is clear. And we’re using damit to introduce it, because we’ve got different subjects.

Ich spreche langsam, damit du mich verstehst.

Ich mache das Video, damit ihr gut auf das B1-Niveau kommt.

So, remember: If we are trying to describe intentions or purposes of an action, then we will only use um…zu if both clauses have the same subject, otherwise we will use damit

So we’ve talked about how to give reasons, explaining why something happens:

Sie kommt morgen vorbei, weil ich Hilfe brauche.

We’ve talked about how to describe intentions, what you’re trying to achieve, if you like, it’s our purpose. This might be with the same subjects:

Sie kommt morgen vorbei, um mir zu helfen.

Or with different subjects:

Sie kommt morgen vorbei, damit ich nicht selber kochen muss.

There’s intention here, me being helped, or me not having to cook. or there’s an intended result:

But sometimes there are results with no explicit intention:

Es hat sehr stark geregnet

How do we continue from here? What might the result or the consequence of it raining?

Na ja.

Es hat sehr stark geregnet; deshalb bin ich jetzt patschnass.²

Now we’re expressing the result or the consequence of it raining.

Wir haben laute Musik gehört, deshalb haben sich die Nachbarn aufgeregt. We listened to loud music. Therefor, the neighbours got agitated

That was the result, but there’s no information here to tell us whether it was intended or not. If I’d said:

Wir haben (absichtlich) laute Musik gehört, damit sich die Nachbarn ärgern

Then there’s an intended purpose of listening to loud music.

Or we could use deswegen (therefore):

Ich bin nicht sehr fit, deswegen gehe ich ins Fitnessstudio.

Or remember this sentence:

Sie holt mich ab, weil ich kein Auto habe.

Let’s express this in a more results focussed way:

Ich habe kein Auto, deshalb holt sie mich ab.

(deshalb means much the same as. deswegen)

Or

Du willst auf das B1-Niveau kommen, deswegen mache ich das Video.

Ok, let’s turn things around now, because sometimes we do things and they have unexpected results or consequences.

Consequences / Results

Can we use one of the structures we’ve already introduced or do we need a new one? Let’s take this example

Sie ist vorbeigekommen, damit ich nicht kochen musste.

That was her purpose (so that I didn’t have to cook). But maybe we just want to express the idea of unintentional consequences or unintended results of actions?

So, imagine this scenario:

What if I wanted to cook, and she’s come around and taken over and I didn’t get to cook what I wanted to. Well that’s a different matter.

Sie ist vorbeigekommen, so dass ich nicht kochen konnte.

Or she came and picked me up. She thought she was being helpful, but I had been looking forward to driving myself in my new car.

Sie hat mich abgeholt, so dass ich nicht selber fahren konnte. She’s picked me up with the unintended consequence that I couldn’t drive by self, and it sounds like I wanted to.

Bonus

Ok: Let’s imagine you’re joining a gym, and the trainer wants to know your motivation. How will you answer? Maybe it’s getting fit, or losing weight, or even to work off stress. We could use a few of our structures.

What about WEIL? This is certainly possible.

Ich will ins Gym, weil ich abnehmen möchte. ..because I want to lose weight

I could use um…zu because it’s the same subject.

Ich will ins Gym, um fit zu werden. …to get fit

I couldn’t use damit, because the subjects are the same, but if we’re trying to answer quickly a lot of these sentences are a bit long-winded. This is where we can answer this question:

Warum willst du ins Fitnessstudio?

• zum Fitwerden

• zum Abnehmen

• zum Stressabbauen

What about the question?

Warum kommt Sabine vorbei?

If it’s a simple answer, we could say

zum Lernen

zum Kochen

nur zum Klönen.

This is the sort of thing that you might hear at a take-away stand in Germany. Maybe you’re buying a Döner or Pommes Rot-weiß: zum Mitnehmen?

But if the reason for the action is any more complicated, then it’s better to go back to um…zu.

Sabine kommt, um mit mir die Geburtstagsfeier zu diskutieren

Sabine kommt, um mir beim Kochen zu helfen.

So in short: pick the form that matches your message. Say why with weil/denn/da, describe your purpose with um … zu (if you’re using the same subject) or damit (if you’ve got different subjects), and highlight any kind of results with deshalb/deswegen—or unintended ones with so dass.

If you can flip the same idea through reason, intention and consequence - like this below, then you’re thinking at B1 level—and you’ll sound like it.

• Reason: Sie geht heute früh ins Fitnessstudio, weil sie sich nicht sehr fit fühlt.

• Intention (same subject): Sie geht heute früh ins Fitnessstudio, um fitter zu werden.

• Intention (different subjects): Sie nimmt mich ins Fitnessstudio mit, damit ich auch fit werde.

• Consequence (neutral): Sie war im Fitnessstudio; deshalb fühlt sie sich jetzt besser.

• Unintended consequence: Das Fitnessstudio war geschlossen, so dass sie heute nicht trainieren konnte.

Thank you for getting this far. If you’ve had enough, then I’ll see you in the next one, otherwise subscribe to keep reading. And finally, hallo all my glorious paid subscribers, let’s get to work on our B1 skills:

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