So, I just got this in review
and then I had answered as ように. Wrong!
How was I supposed to know it was ために?
Or both answers shouldn’t be accepted?
I think the reason it’s ために is because the subject remains the same. This is making me laugh as I had this problem awhile ago, watched this video that someone linked, and forgot a lot of the nuances since there. It’s pretty darn confusing.
This is a long video, it should be linked it so that it starts with answering why ために is used for the same subject. Someone else can jump in here to give a better answer, but this may seem like the correct reason.
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Yeah, the distinction is kind of subtle. One important grammatical note about ように is that it generally pairs with verbs in the potential or negative form. I don’t believe you would often see ように with the dictionary form of a verb (as in this sentence). That’d be the primary clue ために is what’s expected here.
As for the differences in meaning, while you can translate ように as “in order to” in some contexts, I believe the idea is doing something in a particular way that it brings about a certain result. ために on the hand emphasizes the result you are trying to achieve. When you think about it this way, you can see how awkward it would make the example sentence you gave.
家を買うようにローンを組んだ
I took out a loan in such a way as to buy a house
That’s my understanding of the distinction, anyway. I could be wrong.
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Generally
ために - volitional
ように - non-volitional
It’s not so much that it’s not used with the dictionary form, it’s that it’s used for ideal situations that one can’t bring about directly, but can hope or pray for, etc. Since “being able to do X” is not controllable, it works as an ideal situation, and this is used very often. The negative form is also very common e.g. when saying one is trying to avoid something bad.
But verbs in dictionary form can be used with it too, as long as the speaker can’t control the action, for example わかる, or when the speaker wants someone else to do an action which they can’t force, or maybe it’s not even a person, like in 雨が降る.
Interestingly, the ように grammar point also states “potential or negative form” but actually has an example sentence featuring 間に合うように in dictionary form.
In contrast, ために is used to express an aim; something the speaker decided to do. That’s also why it uses the same subject before and after.
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@nekoyama Is correct. Actually many of the grammar points on the site say that a particular tense/nuance is used with XYZ grammar point, when in reality there are exceptions to many of them.
The only thing that there aren’t exceptions to are the actual underlying grammatical rules in most cases, and seeing (A) ‘expression’ with (B) ‘use that you didn’t know it could have’ is usually a new nuance, or just a rare form of a particular grammar point that some textbooks don’t even list as a possibility.
As for ために and ように, I like to think of the difference as the following:
ように - As if the goal was (A)
ために - For the purpose of (A)
The ‘as if the goal was (A)’ really separates the two meanings for me. When you do something ‘as if to do’ something else, you really have no idea whether what you are doing is actually something that is required for (A), you’re just acting in the way that you think may bring about that result. With ために however, you really have that set goal, and are specifically making step by step actions toward it.
If you look at the translation now, we can see that it is gramatically correct, but just very odd. 家を買うようにローンを組んだ。 ‘As if I was going to buy a house, I took out a loan’. In this sentence, the nuance that will be conveyed is that the person doesn’t really know whether they are going to buy a house or not, maybe they will buy a boat instead, but the way that they took the loan was comparable to someone that would be buying a house.
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