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Activities with 'gehen' and the infinitive

When talking about leisure activities and errands in English, we often use the verb go followed by an -ing word, like go shopping, go dancing, or go swimming. German expresses this exact same idea, but the grammar works a bit differently.

Instead of an -ing form, German uses the verb gehen paired directly with an infinitive. English speakers often try to translate the -ing form literally or insert extra prepositional words, but the German structure is wonderfully simple once you get the hang of it.

Word list
essenA1 to eat essen gehen laufenA1 to run laufen gehen schwimmenA1 to swim schwimmen gehen tanzenA1 to dance tanzen gehen trinkenA1 to drink (etwas) trinken gehen Fahrrad fahrenA2 to cycle Fahrrad fahren gehen Rad fahrenA2 to cycle Rad fahren gehen radelnA2 to cycle radeln gehen angelnB1 to fish angeln gehen campen gehenB1 to camp campen gehen einkaufen gehenB1 to do the shopping einkaufen gehen einkaufen gehenB1 to shop shoppen gehen / einkaufen gehen feiernB1 to celebrate feiern gehen fischenB1 to fish fischen gehen jagenB1 to hunt jagen gehen kletternB1 to climb klettern gehen shoppen gehenB1 to shop shoppen gehen spazieren gehenB1 to take a walk spazieren gehen wandernB1 to hike wandern gehen zelten gehenB1 to camp zelten gehen reitenB2 to ride a horse reiten gehen segelnB2 to sail segeln gehen surfenB2 to surf surfen gehen
How the sentence is built

To build a sentence with this structure, you conjugate gehen to match your subject and place it in the normal verb position. The activity you are going out to do stays in its basic dictionary form, the infinitive, and gets pushed all the way to the end of the sentence.

You do not need to add the word zu before the activity. Just state the infinitive plainly.

Wir gehen heute Nachmittag in der Stadt shoppen.
(We are going shopping in the city this afternoon.)
Er geht jeden Morgen mit dem Hund spazieren.
(He goes for a walk with the dog every morning.)
Meine Eltern gehen immer samstags einkaufen.
(My parents always go shopping on Saturdays.)
Popular activities

You can use this construction with almost any verb that describes a physical or leisure activity. Classic examples include schwimmen, tanzen, essen, and wandern. If you love the outdoors, you might also use zelten or campen.

Möchtest du am Wochenende schwimmen gehen?
(Would you like to go swimming on the weekend?)
Wir haben großen Hunger, also gehen wir essen.
(We are very hungry, so we are going out to eat.)
Sie gehen am Freitagabend zusammen tanzen.
(They are going dancing together on Friday night.)
Nächsten Sommer gehen wir in den Alpen wandern.
(Next summer we are going hiking in the Alps.)
Ich gehe nicht gern zelten, weil es mir zu kalt ist.
(I do not like going camping because it is too cold for me.)
Watch out: No need for a phrase showing purpose

English speakers sometimes confuse the idea of going out for a general activity with going somewhere for a specific purpose. If you want to say in order to do something, German uses the phrase um ... zu.

However, when you use fixed phrases like going shopping or going for a walk, do not use um ... zu. Treat the activity as a direct partner to the verb gehen. Adding extra words will make the sentence sound unnatural.

Ich gehe in den Park spazieren.
(I am going for a walk in the park.)
Wir gehen in das neue Restaurant essen.
(We are going out to eat at the new restaurant.)
Summary

When talking about leisure activities and outings, pair the conjugated verb gehen with the infinitive of the activity at the end of the sentence. Resist the urge to translate English -ing endings with extra words like zu.