Breakdown of Wij wilden u verzoeken om vandaag het contract te tekenen.
u
you (formal)
wij
we
vandaag
today
willen
to want
Questions & Answers about Wij wilden u verzoeken om vandaag het contract te tekenen.
Why is this sentence in the past tense (wilden) if they want the contract signed today?
This is the tentative simple past (beleefdheidsimperfectum). By using the past tense wilden instead of the present willen, the request sounds softer, more polite, and less demanding, even though it applies to the present moment. It is similar to saying 'We were hoping to...' or 'We wanted to...' in English to be polite.
Why use 'verzoeken' instead of 'vragen' here?
Verzoeken is a highly formal and professional verb meaning 'to request'. Because this sentence involves an official action (signing a contract) and uses the formal pronoun u, verzoeken matches the polite, businesslike tone much better than the everyday word vragen.
Could I leave out 'om' and just say '...u verzoeken vandaag het contract te tekenen'?
Yes, you can. With verbs of asking, advising, or commanding (like vragen and verzoeken), the om is technically optional before the te + infinitive clause. However, including om is very common in modern Dutch and often makes the sentence flow more naturally.
Why does 'vandaag' come before 'het contract'?
In Dutch, expressions of time (like vandaag) typically come before a specific direct object (het contract). You could place vandaag after the object if you wanted to put heavy emphasis on the time, but the standard neutral word order places time before the object.