In this mini episode, you will learn the common “in order to” construction.
Episode 412 of the Everybody ESL podcast is a mini episode that teaches you the common “in order to” construction. Send your questions about English and your comments and suggestions to EverybodyESL@gmail.com. (And let me know if you’d like to record the introduction to a future episode.)
Intro
“Hello! This is Elisa from Guangzhou, China. You’re listening to Everybody ESL.”
Welcome to episode 412 of Everybody ESL, the podcast for everybody who wants to improve their English, practice their English, or just learn more English. My name is Ben, and I have a mini episode for you today, where I am going to teach you about one English topic. You can subscribe to the Everybody ESL podcast at Apple podcasts and wherever you find your podcasts. If you like Everybody ESL, leave it a good review so other people can find out about it too. And if you have any questions, comments, or suggestions for me, please send an email to EverybodyESL@gmail.com. Okay! Let’s get on with this mini episode.
The episode
In this episode, I am going to teach you a very common and useful construction. We can call this construction the “in order to” construction. In order to.
That is spelled i-n, o-r-d-e-r, t-o. In order to.
You will see this “in order to” construction used in sentences like this:
“She studies all the time in order to get good grades.” She studies all the time in order to get good grades.
What does this sentence mean? What does “in order to” mean? What does it mean when we say “in order to” do something? In this example, “in order to get good grades.”
“In order to” is used when we want to talk about someone’s goal or the purpose for doing something or someone’s intention—what they are trying to do.
Let’s look again at the sentence. “She studies all the time in order to get good grades.” Why does she study all the time? What is her reason for studying all the time? What is her goal? She studies all the time because she wants to get good grades. She studies all the time because that will let her get good grades.
Anytime we want to talk about someone’s intention or the reason they are doing something, anytime we want to talk about their purpose or their goal, we can use this “in order to” construction.
I think you will probably encounter this construction more in written English than in spoken English. Often we do something interesting with this construction in regular conversation: In a conversation, instead of saying, “She studies all the time in order to get good grades,” we might say it in a simpler way.
We might just say, “She studies all the time to get good grades.” To get good grades. We can sort of abbreviate “in order to” to just “to.” She studies all the time to get good grades. Why does she study all the time? To get good grades.
These two versions mean the same thing. They work the same way and they mean the same thing.
And that is “in order to,” a common and useful construction that I think you should know.
Outro
This is the end of episode 412 of Everybody ESL. Remember: if you have any questions about English, or if you have comments for me, or if you would like to record an introduction that I can play at the beginning of future episodes—the same way Elisa recorded the introduction you heard at the beginning of this episode—send an email to EverybodyESL@gmail.com. I’ll be back soon with a new episode. And until then, keep going, keep practicing, and keep learning. I’ll see you soon. Goodbye!