にいく
- 1Go somewhere in order to do an action; the verb stem before に states the purpose of the trip.Ex. 1
- 2Used with a destination (marked by まで, へ or に) to say where one goes and what one does there.Ex. 2
Variants: 行く can be replaced by other movement verbs such as 来る or 帰る（買いに来る）
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A basic, neutral pattern used in everyday conversation and writing to state why someone is going somewhere. It is limited to movement verbs, while ために expresses purpose more generally and attaches to the dictionary form. The destination is marked separately, so a sentence can contain both a place and a purpose.
Learners often attach the dictionary form, as in 飲むに行く; the ます-stem is required, as in 飲みに行く.
Note that the purpose に is different from the destination に, so a place phrase and a purpose phrase can both appear.
Do not use this pattern with verbs that do not express movement; it pairs with verbs like 行く, 来る and 帰る.
- ためにN3When「ために」expresses purpose, it takes the dictionary form or「noun + の」, and the following clause is not limited to movement; it is often used for abstract, long-term goals. 「にいく」expresses only the purpose of movement and is common with concrete actions. 「ために」can also express a reason.
- ついでにN3「にいく」means going in order to do something, where that action is itself the purpose of going. 「ついでに」means doing a secondary thing while doing the main one, and can also stand alone as an adverb. The two cannot be interchanged, but can be combined, as in「買い物に行くついでに」.
- がてらN1「にいく」only states why one goes. 「がてら」means taking the opportunity of the first action to also do the second, accomplishing two purposes in one outing, as in「散歩がてら本屋に寄る」. They attach the same way but differ in meaning and cannot be interchanged.
- つもりでN3「つもりで」means doing the following action with an intention in mind or treating it as a certain situation; the following clause is not limited to movement, and it attaches to the dictionary form or「noun + の」. 「にいく」means going somewhere in order to do something, attaching to the ます-stem or an action noun. They generally cannot be interchanged.
〜に行きます is simply the polite form of this same pattern, while ために states purpose with any verb, not only movement. ついでに and がてら describe doing something extra alongside a main activity (がてら is more literary), and つもりで expresses intention or mindset rather than the purpose of going.
