Word
Tijdens de proefrit wist de klant het verbruik te vergelijken met dat van u.
Meaning
During the test drive, the customer managed to compare the consumption with yours.
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Course
Breakdown of Tijdens de proefrit wist de klant het verbruik te vergelijken met dat van u.
u
you (formal)
met
with
dat
that (het-words)
de klant
the customer
Questions & Answers about Tijdens de proefrit wist de klant het verbruik te vergelijken met dat van u.
Why is it dat van u and not die van u?
It uses dat because it refers back to het verbruik, which is a neuter (het) word. If it were referring back to a de word, like de auto, it would be die van u.
Could I just say met uw verbruik at the end?
Yes, but using the demonstrative replacement dat van u (literally 'that of you' or 'yours') avoids repeating the noun. It sounds much more natural, just like saying 'yours' instead of 'your consumption' in English.
Why does wist mean 'managed to' here instead of 'knew'?
When the verb weten is combined with te and an infinitive (here, te vergelijken), it takes on the meaning of 'to manage to' or 'to succeed in' doing something. This is a very common and useful expression in Dutch.
Why does the verb wist come right after de proefrit?
This is due to the verb-second (V2) rule. Because the sentence starts with the time phrase Tijdens de proefrit, the conjugated verb wist must take the second position, pushing the subject de klant into the third position.