The frame om ... te wraps around an infinitive and is the workhorse Dutch construction for saying why — the purpose or goal of an action. Ik bel om te vragen of je komt means "I'm calling in order to ask whether you're coming." English usually does this job with a bare "to" ("I'm calling to ask..."), which is exactly why English speakers keep leaving om out. But om is not optional decoration here; in a true purpose clause it is structurally required, and it brackets the clause from the front while te + the infinitive close it from the back. This page covers purpose, the closely related patterns after adjectives, and where om genuinely can be dropped.
Purpose: "in order to"
The core meaning of om ... te is goal-directed purpose. You do the main action so that the second action can happen. The structure is fixed: om opens the clause, everything belonging to the infinitive comes in the middle, and the te-infinitive goes last.
Ik ga naar de winkel om brood te kopen.
I'm going to the shop to buy bread.
We zijn vroeg vertrokken om de file te vermijden.
We left early to avoid the traffic jam.
Hij belt om te vragen of je vanavond meegaat.
He's calling to ask whether you're coming along tonight.
Notice the word order inside the om-clause: it behaves like a subordinate clause, so the verb material is pushed to the end (see Subordinate Clauses: Verb-Final). In om brood te kopen, the object brood sits in the middle and te kopen anchors the back. You cannot say om te kopen brood.
The infinitive goes to the end — with separable verbs splitting inside
Because the om-clause is verb-final, the te-infinitive is always the last thing in it. When that infinitive is a separable verb, te wedges between the particle and the stem, and the whole split unit closes the clause: opstaan → om op te staan.
Ik zet de wekker om zes uur om op tijd op te staan.
I'm setting the alarm for six to get up on time.
Ze kwam langs om de spullen op te halen.
She came by to pick up the things.
So inside the om-clause you get three words at the end — op te staan, op te halen — particle, te, stem, in that order. This is the same splitting rule covered at Te Inside Separable Verbs; the om-clause is just where you'll meet it most often.
After te + adjective: "too X to Y"
Beyond pure purpose, om ... te is obligatory after the degree construction te + adjective ("too..."). The pattern te X om te Y means "too X to Y." Here English drops "in order" entirely — "too tired to work" — but Dutch still demands om.
Hij is nog te jong om te rijden.
He's still too young to drive.
Ik ben veel te moe om vanavond nog te koken.
I'm far too tired to cook tonight.
Het was te donker om iets te kunnen zien.
It was too dark to be able to see anything.
The first te and the second te are completely different words — the first is the degree adverb "too" attached to the adjective (see Intensifiers and Degree), the second is the infinitive marker. Te jong om te rijden: "too" + young + om + "to" + drive. Keeping them straight is half the battle.
After evaluative adjectives: "nice to see"
Om ... te is also required after evaluative adjectives — words that judge an action as easy, hard, nice, important, boring, and so on. The pattern is adjective + om te + infinitive: leuk om te doen, moeilijk om te begrijpen, belangrijk om te weten.
Het is altijd leuk om je weer te zien.
It's always nice to see you again.
Deze tekst is best moeilijk om te vertalen.
This text is pretty hard to translate.
Het is belangrijk om genoeg water te drinken.
It's important to drink enough water.
This is a place English speakers under-use om, because "nice to see you" and "hard to translate" have no "in order" feeling at all. In Dutch the evaluative adjective licenses om regardless. Leuk om je te zien, not leuk je te zien.
| Trigger | Pattern | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Purpose ("in order to") | main clause + om ... te + inf. | Ik bel om het te vragen. |
| Degree "too X to Y" | te + adj. + om te + inf. | te moe om te werken |
| Evaluative adjective | adj. + om te + inf. | leuk om te zien |
| After certain nouns | noun + om te + inf. | tijd om te gaan |
Het is tijd om te gaan, de trein vertrekt zo.
It's time to go, the train leaves soon.
When om is optional
After many ordinary te-verbs (the ones from the Te-Infinitive Overview), om is optional and adds a faint flavour of purpose or intention. With verbs like proberen, beginnen, vergeten, besluiten, you can include or omit om with little change in meaning, though leaving it out is slightly more neutral.
Ze besloot (om) een jaar in het buitenland te gaan wonen.
She decided to go and live abroad for a year.
Ik probeer (om) elke ochtend te hardlopen.
I try to go running every morning.
So om is sometimes a genuine choice — but only with these governing verbs. In the three obligatory patterns above (true purpose, te + adjective, evaluative adjective), om is required, and dropping it is an error rather than a style choice.
Common Mistakes
❌ Ik ga naar de winkel te kopen brood.
Incorrect — missing om, and the infinitive isn't clause-final.
✅ Ik ga naar de winkel om brood te kopen.
I'm going to the shop to buy bread.
❌ Hij is te jong rijden.
Incorrect — te + adjective requires om te before the infinitive.
✅ Hij is te jong om te rijden.
He's too young to drive.
❌ Het is leuk je te zien.
Incorrect — evaluative adjectives need om: leuk om te zien.
✅ Het is leuk om je te zien.
It's nice to see you.
❌ Ik zet de wekker om op tijd te opstaan.
Incorrect — opstaan is separable, so te wedges inside: op te staan.
✅ Ik zet de wekker om op tijd op te staan.
I'm setting the alarm to get up on time.
❌ Het is belangrijk om drinken genoeg water.
Incorrect — the te-infinitive must close the clause: ... genoeg water te drinken.
✅ Het is belangrijk om genoeg water te drinken.
It's important to drink enough water.
The two threads tying these errors together are the ones to drill: don't drop om in purpose clauses and after adjectives, and send the te-infinitive to the very end of the om-clause, splitting any separable verb as it goes.
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Start learning Dutch→Related Topics
- The Te-Infinitive: OverviewB1 — When a second verb takes the infinitive marker te and when it stays bare — modals and gaan/komen/laten/zien/horen/blijven take a bare infinitive, most other governing verbs require te.
- Te Inside Separable Verbs (om op te bellen)B1 — How the infinitive marker te lands between the particle and the verb of a separable verb — op te bellen, mee te gaan, schoon te maken — while inseparable verbs keep te in front of the whole word.
- Intensifying Adjectives: Heel, Erg, Zeer, HartstikkeA2 — The words that turn up or turn down an adjective — heel/erg/zeer for 'very' (with sharply different registers), downtoners like nogal and vrij for 'fairly', and colloquial boosters like hartstikke — plus the heel/hele puzzle: heel optionally inflects before an attributive adjective.
- Verb-Final Order in Subordinate ClausesA2 — After a subordinating conjunction, relative pronoun, or question word, the entire verb cluster — including the finite verb — moves to the end of the clause.
- Aan het, Te, and Om...Te: Choosing the Infinitive FrameB2 — One verb (lezen), four frames: aan het lezen (progressive), kan lezen (bare after a modal), probeer te lezen (te), and tijd om te lezen (purpose) — a decision tree for picking the right infinitive construction.