Text: A Weather Forecast

A weather forecast is a register of its own: clipped, impersonal, and built almost entirely from dummy-subject constructions. Master it and you unlock a surprising amount of Danish grammar — the impersonal det, the existential der, the present-plus-vil future, adjective agreement, and the fixed vocabulary of compass points and temperatures. This page annotates a short, authentic-style forecast line by line.

The text

I dag bliver det skiftende skyet med en del sol i den østlige del af landet. Op ad eftermiddagen er der udsigt til byger, især i Jylland, hvor vinden er frisk fra nordvest.

Temperaturerne kommer til at ligge omkring ti grader. I aften klarer det op, og natten bliver kølig med temperaturer ned mod fem grader.

I morgen vil det blive mere ustadigt. Der trækker et lavtryk ind fra vest, og der er risiko for kraftig regn. Vinden bliver hård og drejer mod sydvest. Det bliver altså en våd og blæsende dag.

Translation:

Today it will be variably cloudy with a fair amount of sun in the eastern part of the country. Towards the afternoon there is a chance of showers, especially in Jutland, where the wind is fresh from the northwest.

Temperatures will lie around ten degrees. This evening it clears up, and the night will be cool with temperatures down towards five degrees.

Tomorrow it will become more unsettled. A low-pressure system is moving in from the west, and there is a risk of heavy rain. The wind will be strong and turns towards the southwest. So it'll be a wet and windy day.

Grammar in action

Impersonal det: the weather has no real subject

Danish weather, like English, runs on a dummy subject — but Danish uses det ("it") where the verb needs a grammatical subject yet no real one exists. Det bliver skyet = "It becomes cloudy". Det klarer op = "It clears up". Det bliver en våd dag = "It'll be a wet day". This det refers to nothing; it merely fills the subject slot, exactly like the det er Mette dummy on the phone, but here pointing at the weather/situation at large.

Notice the inversion: because the time adverbial I dag / I aften opens the sentence, the verb comes second and the subject det third — bliver det, klarer det. Danish keeps the finite verb rigidly in second position.

The existential der: der er udsigt til…

To announce that something exists or is forecast, Danish uses the existential der ("there"), parallel to English "there is/are". Der er udsigt til byger = "There is a prospect of showers". Der er risiko for regn = "There is a risk of rain". Der trækker et lavtryk ind = "A low-pressure system is moving in".

This der is a different word from the det above: det stands in for the weather as a whole, while der introduces something new onto the scene.

Choosing between der and det trips up nearly every learner; the short version is der for "there exists X", det for the impersonal "it" of weather and time.

The future: present tense and vil/kommer til at

Danish has no dedicated future tense. A forecast expresses the future three ways, all present in this text:

1. Plain present for scheduled or confident statements: I aften *klarer det op* — present tense, future meaning, just like English "the sun sets at six".
2. vil
   • infinitive
   for prediction: I morgen *vil det blive mere ustadigt* = "Tomorrow it will become more unsettled".
3. kommer til at
   • infinitive
   for "is going to", emphasising an unfolding development: Temperaturerne *kommer til at ligge omkring ti grader*.

Adjective agreement: skyet, kølig, en våd og blæsende dag

Predicative adjectives agree with their subject. Det bliver skyet (neuter, agreeing with det); natten bliver kølig (common gender). In the noun phrase en våd og blæsende dag, våd takes the common-gender indefinite form (no ending) to match en dag; with a neuter noun it would gain -t: et vådt vejr.

Note hård (common gender, matching vinden); a neuter subject would force hårdt.

Compass directions and place phrases

Danish compass points combine freely: nord, syd, øst, vest and the blends nordvest, sydvest, nordøst, sydøst. The wind blows from a direction (fra nordvest) and turns towards one (mod sydvest). For regions, Danish uses i den østlige del af landet ("in the eastern part of the country") — note the definite adjective østlige with its -e ending after den.

Temperatures: omkring ti grader, ned mod fem grader

Temperatures take grader ("degrees"), and approximations use omkring ("around") or ned mod ("down towards"). Note that grader is plural even for low numbers, and below zero you would say minus fem grader or fem graders frost.

Mis-transfer alert

English speakers confuse the two dummy subjects — using det where Danish needs existential der (det er risiko for regn instead of der er risiko), and they over-build a future with extra auxiliaries where the plain present suffices.

Structures in this text

• Impersonal det for weather — see pronouns/det-anticipatory and expressions/weather.
• Existential der der er udsigt til, der trækker et lavtryk ind — see syntax/der-expletive and choosing/der-vs-det-existential.
• Future with present tense, vil and kommer til at — see verbs/future-overview.
• Adjective agreement skyet, kølig, en våd dag — see adjectives/indefinite-agreement.
• Weather, compass and temperature vocabulary — see expressions/weather.