How does the structure (potential form + ように) meaning "in order to do
something in the future" differ from できるように "have the ability to do something
in the future"?

For example:

> たくさんことばが **覚えられるように** 、日本語の本を読んでいます。  
>  In order to learn a lot of words, I am reading books in Japanese.

How does this differ from:

> たくさんことばが **覚えることができるように** 、日本語の本を読んでいます。
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2018-03-29T18:08:58.943
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question
grammar
How does potential form + ように differ from できるように
oboerareruyou ni and oboerukoto ga dekiru you ni have no "meaning" difference.
You are literally saying the same thing. But it is far more natural to use the
potential form plus you ni when describing wanting to be able to do something
as a reason for why you are doing some other thing.

"tomodachi to isshou ni asoberareru you ni oyogu no renshuu shitemasu." is
more fluid and natural sounding than "asoberu koto ga dekiru you ni" in that
sentence. Think of it like the difference between saying: "so that I will be
able to play" vs the more natural: "so I can play"

"ga dekiru" on the other hand, is most often used on its own, to make a
special point of explaining something that you can do.

watashi wa piano hiku koto ga dekiru. As a simple declarative of ability. This
is by far the most common usage of the "ga dekiru" pattern.

I have heard "ga dekiru you ni .... etc etc." before, but it's rare, and as
far as I can tell it's used mostly to strongly emphasize striving for the
ABILITY to do something, where that ability is the main goal... the difference
between "studying japanese so I can understand it" and "studying japanese so
I'll be able to understand my wife's parents"
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2018-03-29T21:36:34.963
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answer
Disclaimer: credits to
[@user4092](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/questions/57600/how-does-
potential-form-%E3%82%88%E3%81%86%E3%81%AB-differ-
to-%E3%81%A7%E3%81%8D%E3%82%8B%E3%82%88%E3%81%86%E3%81%AB#comment99648_57600)
and [@Eiríkr Útlendi](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/questions/57600/how-
does-potential-form-%E3%82%88%E3%81%86%E3%81%AB-differ-
to-%E3%81%A7%E3%81%8D%E3%82%8B%E3%82%88%E3%81%86%E3%81%AB#comment155030_57600)

* * *

They are the same, except that the latter should be ことば **を** 覚えることが.

In the top version, 覚えられる is a descriptive verb meaning more like "to be
memorizable", which describes a quality of the words, which is why we have ことば
**が** (as the subject of the descriptive verb):

> ことば **が** 覚えられるように

In the bottom version, 覚える is an active verb meaning "to memorize", which
describes the action of the agent in the sentence (presumably the speaker)
doing something with the words, which is why we should have ことば **を** (as the
object of the active verb):

> ことば ~~が~~ **を** 覚えることができるように

Separately, putting たくさん on the front like this sounds odd. It seems more
natural to put that just before the verb (覚える or 覚えられる), since たくさん here
effectively acts as an adverb.
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answer