tut or tun

Hello, 

Why does the sentence ends with “zu tun” instead of “zu tut”

“Er sucht etwas zu tun”

Thank you and regards,

Tina

Guten Tag Tina!

Many sentences are constructed with two verbs (see "suchen" and “tun” above). This is usually the case when there are two actions which are related to each other. The first verb “sucht” is conjugated to match “er”. The second verb “tun” is an infinitive verb. In English, you can recognise the infinitive verb when it has “to” in front of it, e.g. “He is looking for something to do.”

Another example is:

“Sie versucht zu helfen.” - “She is trying to help.”

Hope this helps!

Tschüss,

Julia

Hi Julia

Is it correct to assume then that “Was kann ich fu(”)r Sie tun "  in Baker's dozen follows the same grammar rule.

I love it when something goes “Click in my brain” and I make connections.

Slowly it begins to form a bigger picture.

Thanks

Sebongela

Hallo Sebongela!

Yes, it is similar! Apart from this being a question, it doesn't have the preposition “zu" in front of the infinitive compared to the phrase above. This is because modal verbs such as “können”  take the infinitive without “zu”. This becomes clear, when we turn the question into a statement and use the verb “versuchen" instead of “können”:

“Ich kann das für Sie tun.” - “I can do that for you.”

“Ich versuche das für Sie zu tun.” - “I'm trying to do that for you.”

Viele Grüße,

Julia