Should I use "zu" when I am using infinitive alone/standing separately?

Question

I am filling in a form in German and there is a box in it: "Studienziel an der Partneruniversität". I wanted to write down this:

Masterarbeit zu schreiben, dabei die Bibliothek zu nutzen und dortige Experten zu konsultieren. Außerdem mein Deutsch wesentlich zu verbessern, und Vorlesungen und Seminare zu besuchen.

But I do not know, whether it is correct to use all these zu before infinitives. Could anybody help? I have searched through quite a few threads here and elsewhere, but none seems to meet my problem, which is using infinitive alone, without any other sentence containing conjugated verb.

I would say: "Schreiben der Masterarbeit, Nutzung der Bibliothek, Diskussion mit Experten, Verbesserung der Sprachkenntnisse in Deutsch, Besuch von Vorlesung und Seminaren" — Iris, Oct 28 '15 at 14:51
Suppose you start a sentence with "Mein Studienziel an der Partneruniversität ist es, meine Masterarbeit zu schreiben, ...", then it's correct. If you just list them and do not really write a full sentence, you can do it simpler as suggested by @Iris. — Em1, Oct 28 '15 at 15:36
Try to write whole sentences instead of fragments, then you will not have the trouble to decide which is wrong or right. — Hubert Schölnast, Oct 28 '15 at 16:43
I'm going to combine our three comments in an answer, ok? @Hubert Schölnast — Iris, Oct 29 '15 at 14:10
I'm going to combine our three comments in an answer, ok? @Em1 — Iris, Oct 29 '15 at 14:10
Is it an error to just say "dabei Bibliothek zu nutzen"? I would write "dabei die Bibliothek zu nutzen". — Iris, Oct 29 '15 at 14:16
@Iris Go ahead, if we were about posting an answer, it'd already happened. — And yes, the article is necessary. — Em1, Oct 29 '15 at 14:49
@Em1, should this error be corrected in the question or mentioned in the answer? — Iris, Oct 29 '15 at 15:02

score 3 · Accepted Answer · edited Oct 29 '15 at 15:04

As @Em1 wrote, suppose you start a sentence with

Mein Studienziel an der Partneruniversität ist es, meine Masterarbeit zu schreiben, …

then it’s correct. However, it sounds strange for native speakers.

So it’s better to write whole sentences instead of fragments (comment by @Hubert Schölnast). If you want to keep it short you can reformulate it to:

Schreiben der Masterarbeit, Nutzung der Bibliothek, Diskussion mit Experten, Verbesserung der Sprachkenntnisse in Deutsch, Besuch von Vorlesungen und Seminaren

Should I use "zu" when I am using infinitive alone/standing separately?

1 Answers1