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I’m going through the book “German Short Stories for Beginners”. In the second story I came across the following sentence:

Dort Baden zu gehen ist fast wie am Meer.

The question is: Why is zu used for Baden zu gehen?

Can zu signal noun use for infinitives?

Björn Friedrich
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Roberto
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    Check this answer (the accepted answer is nonsense): https://german.stackexchange.com/a/39352/35111 – David Vogt Mar 30 '20 at 15:02
  • Since you are using Enlgish, perhaps, consider the same sentence in English: "To go bathing there is almost the same as at the sea". – Sassa NF Mar 30 '20 at 16:33

2 Answers2

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The sentence contains a mistake. It should be written with a lowercase b, i.e. baden gehen. However, the zu is used with gehen, so even if baden was used as a noun, it wouldn't change anything here. Thus

Dort baden zu gehen.

is the correct way. However you can make it a noun, with an additional zu and an article (indicating it indeed is treated as a noun here):

Dorthin zum Baden zu gehen ist schön.

infinitezero
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    Interesting. @Janka makes a case here: https://german.stackexchange.com/a/39352/35111 that one can use capitalized Baden – Sassa NF Mar 30 '20 at 16:37
  • Even dort baden gehen ist schön would be grammatical. But in this case I have to admit that I have no idea whether baden should be capitalized. Or gehen, even. – phipsgabler Mar 31 '20 at 08:35
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    Both are verbs and should be written lowercase. – infinitezero Mar 31 '20 at 10:56
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"baden zu gehen" is the infinitive construction. Such type of sentence construction is basically used for separable verbs or to separate the verbs coming one after the other. As rightly stated in the previous answer, baden should be written with small 'b'.

Then the sentence would make complete sense: Dort baden zu gehen ist fast wie am Meer

Prajakta K
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