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. Note that this applies to all three main verbs of motion: to go, to come, and to return.

【Verb: Stem】に【行いく】or【来くる】or【帰かえる】

To go / come / return 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.

遊あそびに来きませんか？

Won’t you come and hang out.

サッ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.

昼ひるご飯はんを食たべに帰かえります。

I will go home to eat lunch.

Using Action Nouns

You do not always have to use a verb stem. For “suru-verbs” (verbs made of a noun + する, such as 勉強べんきょうする or 買かい物ものする), you can drop the する entirely and attach に directly to the action noun.

買かい物ものに行いきます。

I will go shopping.

日本にほんへ旅行りょこうに来きました。

I came to Japan to travel.

The Particle Trap (で vs に)

It is easy to slip up on the grammar here regarding locations. You might think that to say “I will go to study in the library” 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 will go to study in the library.

… 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. Because you are traveling to a destination, we must use に or へ.

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 also need to be careful when using the directional particle へ (he).

東京駅とうきょうえきへ行いきます。(✔)

東京駅とうきょうえきに行いきます。(✔)

I will go to Tokyo station.

That’s fine. But the directional particle cannot be used to mark the purpose of the action. Only に can be used for the purpose.

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。(✔)

I will go to eat sushi in Ginza.