For The Purpose Of Learning ために
“With me poetry has not been a purpose, but a passion.” - Edgar Allan Poe
There are two main ways to use ために: One is verbs and one is nouns. We’re going to start as simple as possible with both of them, and then move up in terms of complexity and what you’re able to say (with what you know so far).
Nouns, I’d say, are easier, so let’s start with that.
Nounのために
With nouns, “ために” is more like the word “for” than it is like the word “for the purpose of.” Here’s what I mean:
For the test, I will study.
For my mom, I will study.
For Johnny, I will go.
Technically, you could say something like “For the purpose of Johnny” but that gets kind of weird. On TextFugu, when it comes to the purpose of a noun, I’m going to generally just use “for” and not “for the purpose of.” Let’s take a look at the sentences above, with the first half in Japanese. The pattern is:
＿＿＿＿のために (for _____) + What you will do for that noun
しけん の ために (for the test)
わたし の はは の ために (for my mother)
ジョニーさん の ために (for Johnny)
Do you see how that first half comes together? The second half, the part that comes after the ために explains what you’re going to do for the first half.
しけん の ために ＋ べんきょうします
わたし の はは の ために ＋ べんきょうします
ジョニーさん の ために ＋ いきます
Right now we’re sticking with simple sentences. On the next page, we’ll be expanding out. You can think of it this way too {sentence 1} のために {sentence 2} where both sides of ために are basically their own sentences. For now, let’s just stick with the simple sentences above. We’ll complicate things soon enough!
Verb (dictionary) ために
Verbs are a little more difficult, I’d say, but not by much (especially since you understand nouns). Hopefully you remember the verb ために pattern:
v.dict ために _______.
Make sure you note there’s no の there between the dictionary form verb (really important it’s dictionary form) and the ために. Let’s do what we did before, and take a look at some sentences in English.
In order to buy a game, I will go to a video store.
For the purpose of studying Japanese, I will buy TextFugu.
In order to eat sushi, I will go to a restaurant.
Just like before, the bold parts are the ために portion of the sentence. Let’s take a look at the first half of these three examples.
ゲーム を かう ために (in order to buy a game…)
にほんご を べんきょうする ために (for the purpose of studying Japanese…)
すし を たべる ために (in order to eat sushi…)
In these sentences, you know exactly how to do everything before the ために (as in, you know how to say “I will eat sushi”). There isn’t much new, except for adding ために to the end, which changes the sentence’s meaning to “for the purpose of eating sushi.”
Now let’s add the second half to these.
ゲーム を かう ために ＋ ビデオや へ いく
にほんご を べんきょうする ために ＋ TextFugu を かう
すし を たべる ために レストラン に いく
We’re just adding what we’re doing in order to do the first thing after the ために. For now, let’s keep things simple like this, We’ll add on more in the coming pages.
So, you have Nouns and you have Verbs. Make sure you understand how both of them work as well as the patterns they use, and move on to the next page, where we’ll expand off of what you learned here!