Grammar Info

N5 Lesson 5: 12/12

～に行(い)くTo go ~, To go in order to ~

Structure

Verb［ます］+ に + 行(い)く

Details

  • Part of Speech

    Expression

  • Word Type

    Verb

  • Register

    Standard

About Verb + にいく

に行(い)く is a grammar construction that is used when someone is going somewhere for the purpose of doing (A). (A) representing the verb that comes before に行(い)く. As with other uses of に, this particle is highlighting an end point or goal of 'going'.

When using this structure, it will be important to remember that (A) will appear in its stem form, before に行(い)く gets attached to the end.

This grammar point is regularly translated as 'to go in order to (A)'.

If you have already 'gone' somewhere for the purpose of doing something, then you would use '(A) に来(き)た', while at the location.

Examples

--:--

    ラーメンを食(た)べにいく。

    To go eat ramen. (to go in order to eat)

    サッカーをしにいく。

    To go play soccer. (to go in order to play)

    日本語(にほんご)を勉強(べんきょう)しにいきます。

    I will go study Japanese. (to go in order to study)

    公園(こうえん)へ遊(あそ)びにいった。

    I went to play at the park. (to go in order to play)

    本(ほん)を買(か)いにいきます。

    I will go buy a book. (to go in order to buy)

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Verb + にいく – Grammar Discussion

Most Recent Replies (32 in total)

  • IcyIceBear

    IcyIceBear

    Not godan specific conjugation explanation, but it does have something that tells you.

  • malek777

    malek777

    Hi all! I see that some actions include the stem from of suru (shi) before adding the ni-iku. My question is: Does suru (shi in this case) not require an object marker (wo) to function correctly? In the below sentence, for example, why is there no “wo” between “benkyou” and “shi”?

    日本語を勉強しに行きます

  • norah

    norah

    This feels like taking an unnecessary extra step to fit it into a neat description short-hand description that works for both ichidan and godan verbs. Verbs don’t really conjugate into “ます conjugation”. “ます” is just a verb.

    For godan verbs they conjugate into i-stem, which we even see in this response:
    休 む → 休み
    歩 く → 歩き

    For ichidan all that happens is removing “る” as with basically all ichidan conjugations.

    As explained here we then add “ます”, and then remove “ます”, and then add in “に行く”

    So isn’t adding in “ます” just an extra step to use the same description for ichidan and godan verbs? That’s… weird.

    Anyways, I’ll drop in a little video that I think could be useful to most who stumble in here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cGA6Tj9_lSg

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