Movement Towards an Action

Japanese Grammar Guide
Movement Towards an Action

Movement towards action refers to sentences like the following:

I am going to eat.

I am coming to meet her.

I went to watch a football game.

In Japanese we use the following structure.

【Verb: Stem】に【行いく】or【来くる】

To go/come to do something

会あいに来きます。

To come and meet.

明日あしたは、銀座ぎんざに寿司すしを食たべに行いきます。

Tomorrow I’m going to go and eat sushi in Ginza [a place in Tokyo].

遊あそびに来きませんか？

Won’t you come and hang out.

サーカーの試合しあいを見みに行いきました。

I went to watch a football game.

It is easy to slip up on the grammar here. You might think that to say “I will go to study in the library” (for example) the grammar should be…

図書館としょかんで勉強べんきょうしに行いきます。(✘)

I went to watch a football game.

… because the library is the place of action and the following, as we have seen, is correct:

図書館としょかんで勉強べんきょうします。

I will study in the library.

However, when we want to express movement towards an action it is the final verb—“to go” or “to come”—which dictates the particle and therefore we must use に.

図書館としょかんに勉強べんきょうしに行いきます。

I will go to study in the library.

We need to be careful when using the directional particle.

東京駅とうきょうえきへ行いきます。(OK)

東京駅とうきょうえきに行いきます。(OK)

I will go to Tokyo station.

That’s fine. But the directional particle cannot be used to join the two verbs.

銀座ぎんざへ寿司すしを食たべへ行いきます。(✘)

銀座ぎんざへ寿司すしを食たべに行いきます。(OK)

I will go to eat sushi in Ginza.

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