Breakdown of Kwam het u uit om het contract vandaag te tekenen?
u
you (formal)
vandaag
today
het
it
het contract
the contract
Questions & Answers about Kwam het u uit om het contract vandaag te tekenen?
Why is the past tense kwam used when the sentence talks about vandaag (today)?
This is an example of the tentative simple past (the beleefdheidsimperfectum). By using the past tense kwam instead of the present komt, the speaker makes the question sound more hesitant and therefore much more polite. We do this in English too, like asking "Did you want to sign this today?" instead of "Do you want to sign this today?"
What is the infinitive of kwam ... uit and what does it mean?
The verb is the separable verb uitkomen. When combined with the dummy subject het (it) and an indirect object like u (you), the expression het komt [iemand] uit means "it is convenient for [someone]" or "it suits [someone]".
Is u the subject of the sentence?
No, u is the indirect object. The grammatical subject of the main clause is the word het ("it"). Because the formal pronoun u looks the same whether it is a subject or an object, its role can be tricky to spot. If you made this sentence informal, you would use the object pronoun jou (kwam het jou uit).
Why do we need om ... te here?