English lets one word, so, cover both "I did it in order to achieve X" and "X is what came of it". Hebrew separates them completely, and it separates them in the grammar rather than in the vocabulary: purpose takes an infinitive or a future-tense verb, result takes a plain past-tense report of what happened. Learners conflate the two because English does; keeping them apart is the first job of this page.
Purpose: one test decides the form
Purpose has two frames, and choosing between them is not a matter of taste. Ask a single question: do the two clauses have the same subject?
- Same subject → כדי plus the infinitive. The infinitive carries no person of its own, so it can only be understood as belonging to the subject already in the sentence.
- Different subjects → כדי ש plus a future-tense verb. The infinitive is now impossible, because there is nowhere to put the new subject.
Change nothing but the subject and the whole construction has to switch:
באתי מוקדם כדי לתפוס מקום חנייה ליד הבניין.
báti mukdám kdei litpós makóm khanayá leyád habinyán
I came early to get a parking space near the building. (I came, I park — one subject)
באתי מוקדם כדי שתוכלי ללכת הביתה בזמן.
báti mukdám kdei shetukhlí lalékhet habáyta bazmán
I came early so that you could go home on time. (to a woman — I came, you go, so the infinitive is out)
The asymmetry is worth stating precisely, because the usual textbook version overstates it. כדי ש is not forbidden with a shared subject — באתי מוקדם כדי שאוכל לתפוס מקום is perfectly good Hebrew, just heavier. What is genuinely impossible is the other direction: an infinitive can never introduce a new subject.
Negative purpose
Negate the purpose clause, not the main one: כדי שלא plus a future verb. In relaxed speech the כדי often drops away and the bare שלא carries the whole meaning.
השארתי לך אוכל במקרר כדי שלא תצטרך לבשל אחרי המשמרת.
hish'árti lekhá ókhel bamekarér kdei sheló titstarékh levashél akharéi hamishméret
I left you food in the fridge so you wouldn't have to cook after your shift. (to a man)
תסגור את החלון שלא ייכנס קור.
tisgór et hakhalón sheló yikanés kor
Shut the window so the cold doesn't get in. (to a man; informal — the bare שלא, with no כדי in front of it)
The bare infinitive already means purpose
This is where learners' Hebrew goes stiff. An infinitive after a verb of motion already expresses purpose with no connective at all — הלכתי לקנות לחם, קפצתי לבדוק, ירדתי להוציא את הזבל. Adding כדי is not a mistake; it is simply more than the sentence needs, and it makes casual speech sound like a form.
קפצתי לסופר לקנות חלב, אני חוזר עוד רגע.
kafátsti lasúper liknót khaláv, aní khozér od réga
I've popped out to the shop for milk — back in a minute. (m. speaker; the bare infinitive, and what anyone would actually say)
קפצתי לסופר כדי לקנות חלב, לא כדי לעשות קניות לשבוע.
kafátsti lasúper kdei liknót khaláv, lo kdei la'asót kniyót leshavúa
I went to the shop to buy milk, not to do the weekly shop. (also correct — here כדי earns its place, because the two purposes are being contrasted)
The five connectives do not pattern alike
| Connective | What follows it | Register |
|---|---|---|
| כדי | infinitive | neutral — every register |
| כדי ש | future-tense verb | neutral — every register |
| על מנת · על מנת ש | infinitive · future-tense verb | formal writing; language editors prefer כדי |
| למען | a noun phrase; never a ש־ clause | formal, elevated |
| בשביל | a noun phrase; plus an infinitive in speech | informal |
על מנת is not simply a posher כדי. The Academy's dictionary entry gives its first sense as בתנאי, "on condition that" — the rabbinic legal formula הרי את מקודשת לי על מנת שתיתני לי מאתיים זוז — and that conditional sense is still live. A purpose sense, מתוך כוונה, is attested from the same rabbinic period, so the purpose use is not a modern corruption, and the entry itself grants that the two overlap: שכן במקרים רבים הכוונה והתכלית מזדהות לחלוטין, in many cases intention and purpose coincide completely. What the entry adds is a usage note, and it is careful about whose objection it is reporting — עורכי הלשון ובעלי הסגנון, language editors and stylists, hold that using it for purpose "מרחיק את הביטוי מן המשמעות המקורית שלו – תנאי", moves the expression away from its original meaning of a condition, and that "בוודאי אין סיבה למעמד הגבוה שהביטוי 'על מנת' זכה בו" — there is certainly no reason for the elevated status it has acquired. Bahat says the same from the other end: writers swap כדי ש for על מנת ש to make a sentence sound important, "אף על פי שבמשמעה 'על מנת' היא על גבול התנאי".
השאלתי לו את הרכב על מנת שיחזיר אותו עד חמש.
hish'álti lo et harékhev al menát sheyakhazír otó ad khamésh
I lent him the car on condition that he bring it back by five. (the original sense — a condition, not a purpose)
הנתונים נאספו על מנת לבחון את ההשערה השנייה.
hanetuním ne'esfú al menát livkhón et hahash'ará hashniyá
The data were collected in order to test the second hypothesis. (academic — everywhere in this register, and the one a language editor would change to כדי)
למען does not take a ש־ clause. In modern prose it governs a noun phrase. The one verbal pattern it keeps is the biblical one — a bare future with no ש at all, למען יוכלו, למען ידעו — and on Hebrew Wikipedia those sit almost entirely inside quotations from older writing. למען ש־ is a different matter: למען שיהיה, למען שנוכל and למען שידעו all return zero there, against 570 for the control כדי שיהיה, and relaxing the probe to catch ולמען turns up exactly two hits, which are the same 1948 letter quoted in two articles (insource: regex counts, one probe shape on both columns, August 2026). Frozen legalisms like למען הסר ספק are the other survival.
הקימו את הקרן למען ילדים בסיכון.
hekímu et hakéren lemá'an yeladím besikún
They set up the fund for children at risk. (formal — a noun phrase, which is what למען governs in modern prose)
בשביל plus an infinitive is real, and it is spoken. It is not a learner error and not a regionalism; it is simply informal, and rare in edited prose.
נסעתי עד תל אביב בשביל לקנות גיטרה יד שנייה.
nasáti ad tel avív bishvíl liknót gitára yad shniyá
I drove all the way to Tel Aviv to buy a second-hand guitar. (informal)
Result: what actually came of it
A result clause reports an outcome, so nothing in it is hypothetical and nothing goes into the future. Four patterns cover almost everything.
כך ש — "with the result that", the workhorse, and the one that maps most cleanly onto English so:
הרכבת התעכבה חצי שעה, כך שפספסתי את תחילת ההרצאה.
harakévet hit'akvá khatsí sha'á, kakh shepispásti et tkhilát hahartsa'á
The train was half an hour late, so I missed the beginning of the lecture.
ולכן — "and therefore", slightly more deliberate, common in writing and in explaining yourself:
לא ענו לי בטלפון, ולכן נסעתי לשם בעצמי.
lo anú li batélefon, velakhén nasáti leshám be'atsmí
Nobody answered the phone, so I drove over there myself.
כל כך… ש — the correlative, where a degree causes the outcome. The כל כך sits on the adjective or adverb, and the ש opens the consequence:
היא הייתה כל כך עייפה שנרדמה באמצע הסרט.
hi haytá kol kakh ayefá shenirdemá be'emtsá haséret
She was so tired that she fell asleep in the middle of the film.
עד ש — "to the point that", for a result reached by degrees:
צחקנו עד שכאבה לנו הבטן ולא יכולנו לנשום.
tsakháknu ad sheka'avá lánu habéten veló yakhólnu linshóm
We laughed until our sides hurt and we couldn't breathe.
The same עד ש also means plain "until", which is a temporal job rather than a result one — that use belongs to temporal clauses.
Five to build
| First sentence | Second sentence | |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | הוא לומד ערבית | הוא רוצה לעבוד במשרד החוץ |
| 2 | כיביתי את האור | רציתי שהתינוקת תירדם |
| 3 | היה גשם חזק מאוד | לא יצאנו מהבית כל היום |
| 4 | הסברתי שוב לאט | רציתי שכולם יבינו |
| 5 | איחרנו לרכבת | הגענו לחתונה רק בערב |
Items 2 and 4 have two different subjects, so they cannot use the infinitive.
הוא לומד ערבית כדי לעבוד יום אחד במשרד החוץ.
hu loméd aravít kdei la'avód yom ekhád bemisrád hakhúts
He's learning Arabic in order to work at the foreign ministry one day.
כיביתי את האור כדי שהתינוקת סוף סוף תירדם.
kibíti et ha'ór kdei shehatinóket sof sof teradém
I turned the light off so the baby would finally fall asleep.
היה גשם כל כך חזק שלא יצאנו מהבית כל היום.
hayá géshem kol kakh khazák sheló yatsánu mehabáyit kol hayóm
The rain was so heavy that we didn't leave the house all day.
הסברתי שוב לאט כדי שכולם יבינו מה קורה.
hisbárti shuv le'át kdei shekulám yavínu ma koré
I explained it again slowly so that everyone would understand what was going on.
איחרנו לרכבת, כך שהגענו לחתונה רק בערב.
ikhárnu larakévet, kakh shehigánu lakhatuná rak ba'érev
We missed the train, so we only got to the wedding in the evening.
Common Mistakes
1. כדי followed by a conjugated verb. English in order to help and so I could help both start the same way, and learners carry the finite verb straight over.
❌ באתי כדי אעזור לך עם הארגזים
Incorrect — כדי takes an infinitive; a conjugated verb needs the ש: באתי כדי לעזור לך, or באתי כדי שאעזור לך.
✅ באתי כדי לעזור לך עם הארגזים הכבדים.
báti kdei la'azór lekhá im ha'argazím hakvedím
I came to help you with the heavy boxes. (to a man)
2. Present tense after כדי ש. The purpose clause describes something that has not happened yet, so the verb has to be in the future.
❌ קניתי כרטיסים מראש כדי שאנחנו נכנסים בלי תור
Incorrect — כדי ש takes a future-tense verb: כדי שניכנס בלי תור.
✅ קניתי כרטיסים מראש כדי שניכנס בלי תור.
kaníti kartisím merósh kdei shenikanés bli tor
I bought tickets in advance so we could get in without queuing.
3. Blending the two frames. Knowing both כדי + infinitive and כדי ש + future, learners produce the two of them at once.
❌ התקשרתי כדי שלהזכיר לך את הפגישה
Incorrect — it is either כדי plus the infinitive or כדי ש plus a conjugated verb, never both: התקשרתי כדי להזכיר לך את הפגישה.
✅ התקשרתי רק כדי להזכיר לך את הפגישה של מחר.
hitkashárti rak kdei lehazkír lekhá et hapgishá shel makhár
I just called to remind you about tomorrow's meeting. (to a man)
4. Choosing the wrong frame and changing the meaning. Neither of these is wrong. They are about different people getting wet, and nothing in the English so as not to get wet tells you which one you meant.
✅ הבאתי מטרייה כדי לא להירטב בדרך חזרה.
hevéti mitriyá kdei lo leheratév badérekh khazará
I brought an umbrella so I wouldn't get soaked on the way back. (the infinitive — so that I don't)
✅ הבאתי מטרייה כדי שלא תירטבי בדרך חזרה.
hevéti mitriyá kdei sheló teratví badérekh khazará
I brought an umbrella so you wouldn't get soaked on the way back. (to a woman — a different subject forces כדי ש)
Key Takeaways
- Same subject takes כדי plus an infinitive, different subjects take כדי ש plus a future verb: באתי מוקדם כדי לתפוס מקום against באתי מוקדם כדי שתוכלי ללכת.
- The asymmetry runs one way only. כדי ש with a shared subject is fine, just heavier; an infinitive with a new subject is impossible.
- Negative purpose is כדי שלא plus the future, and in speech the bare שלא: תסגור את החלון שלא ייכנס קור.
- After a verb of motion the bare infinitive already means purpose — קפצתי לסופר לקנות חלב. Save כדי for when the purpose is being contrasted or emphasised.
- על מנת leads with "on condition that", and language editors would rather you wrote כדי for purpose; למען takes a noun phrase and never a ש־ clause; בשביל לקנות is real, informal Hebrew.
- Result is reported, not projected: כך ש (כך שפספסתי), ולכן, the correlative כל כך… ש (כל כך עייפה שנרדמה), and עד ש for a threshold.
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Start learning Hebrew →Related Topics
- כדי ש־ and למען: In Order ThatB1 — כדי is one word doing two jobs — the Academy's dictionary defines it as taking either ש plus a future verb or ל plus an infinitive. This page is the vocabulary around it: the contested בכדי and the unrelated לא בכדי that is pointed differently, negative purpose with כדי שלא and the bare שלא, the literary פן, and למען, which is a preposition and takes pronoun suffixes.
- Infinitive of Purpose: כדי ל־ vs a Bare ל־B1 — Choose the natural Hebrew purpose frame: a bare infinitive after motion, כדי plus an infinitive when purpose is explicit, and כדי ש plus a finite verb when it has its own subject.
- מכיוון ש־, היות ו־, בגלל ש־B2 — Above the everyday כי sits a whole shelf of because-words, and they are not interchangeable: the Academy pairs מפני ש־ and משום ש־ with a reason that follows the main clause, and כיוון ש־ and מאחר ש־ with one that can also come first — a split you can measure. Plus what the Academy really said about בגלל ש (it did not rule), and why היות ו־ is the one to avoid in writing.
- Temporal Clauses and Their TenseB1 — After כש־, אחרי ש־, לפני ש־, עד ש־, מאז ש־ and בזמן ש־, Hebrew puts a future verb in the clause when the event is in the future — אחרי שאסיים, אלך הביתה — where English forces a present. All six need a ש in front of a clause, and their bare twins לפני, אחרי and בזמן take a noun instead.