Sunday, August 12, 2018

grammar - On the interchangeability of ~ように and ~ために


I was asked this question and was not sure 100% about how to answer.


As I understand, in XようにY X is a state/event that is beyond the control of the subject Y (a certain consequence X will arise as the result of an action Y), while in XためにY, X is an action that can be controlled by the subject of Y.



In some cases then, ~ように and ~ために are interchangeable, such as in the following excample:



  1. 学生が勉強する{ために/ように}、先生は毎日宿題を出します。


In this case we can use either of the two since the subject of the main clause (the teacher) is different from that of the subordinate (the students). Therefore, he/she cannot necessarily control the action in the subordinate.


However, given rules above in the following example only ~ために can be used:



  1. 新しい車を買う{ために/Xように}、お金を貯めています。


(With the X mark to indicate that it would be wrong).



The question I was not sure how to answer was: "What if instead of 買う with conjugate using 買える and say:


2': 新しい車を買えるように、お金を貯めています。


Would this be correct?"


(Notice that there is no question here about 買えるために).


I think that this makes sense, and it sounds correct to me, but somehow reading the grammar rules confused me a little bit (Maybe 車 would be more correct, as a comment made me think). I would appreciate a confirmation. Thanks.




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