zu

I am a little confused about when to use "zu". For example, a waiter might ask "Was mochten Sie trinken? In lesson 1.2 Nik wants etwas "warmes zu trinken". Does she use zu because she has the adjective "warmes I am a little confused about when to use "zu". For example, a waiter might ask "Was mochten Sie trinken" without "zu". In lesson 1.2 Nik asks for etwas "warmes zu trinken" . Does she use zu because she has the adjective "warmes" in the sentence? Thank You, leo '

Hi there, the basic form of a verb is called "Infinitive". This is how you will find the verb in the dicitonary. In English the infinitive is "to drink", "to eat" and so on. In German the infinitive is simply "trinken" and there is no need to add the extra word "zu". Keep this in mind when you look at this sentence: "What would you like to drink?" - "to drink" is the infinitive "Was möchten Sie trinken?" - "trinken" is the infinitive When you say "I would like something hot to drink" you specify more clearly what you would like to drink. In German t you use the word "zu". However, you can also leave this out and in spoken German you will often hear: "Ich möchte was warmes trinken". The word for "something" would be shortened from "etwas" to "was" and the "zu" is missing. Spoken German is often not 100% correct grammatically, but this is how it works will all languages.