Every Norwegian main clause needs a subject in front of the verb — Norwegian is not a pro-drop language, so you can never just leave the subject slot empty. But plenty of sentences have nothing real to put there: it isn't something that rains, and "it's nice to see you" isn't about any particular "it." For exactly these cases Norwegian uses a dummy subject, the expletive det ("it"). It carries no meaning; it is a placeholder whose only job is to fill the subject slot so the V2 rule has something to stand on. This page covers the three big uses of expletive det: weather and ambient conditions, time and general states, and extraposition — pushing a heavy infinitive or at-clause to the end and propping the front up with det. (The closely related det that introduces a new indefinite thing — det er en katt i hagen — is the presentative det, and has its own page.)
Helpfully for English speakers, this is almost exactly English dummy it: "It's raining," "It's late," "It's nice to see you." Map det onto it and you will be right most of the time.
Weather and ambient conditions
Verbs and adjectives describing the weather have no logical subject, so det fills the slot. Pronounce it [de] — the t is silent.
Det regner.
It's raining.
Det snør ute.
It's snowing outside.
Det er kaldt i dag.
It's cold today.
There is no "thing" doing the raining; det is purely structural. Notice you cannot drop it — Regner on its own is not a sentence in Norwegian. The subject slot must be occupied, and det is what occupies it.
Time, distance, and general states
The same dummy det introduces statements about time, ambient conditions and vague states of affairs — "it's late," "it's far," "it's nice here."
Det er sent.
It's late.
Det er langt til byen.
It's a long way to town.
Det er hyggelig her.
It's nice here.
Again det refers to nothing in particular — not a clock, not a room. It is the grammatical seat-filler for a statement about the situation as a whole. This is the same impersonal "it" English uses in "It's late," "It's a long way."
Extraposition: propping up a heavy subject
This is the most useful and least obvious job of expletive det. Sometimes the real subject is an entire infinitive phrase or at-clause — "to dance is fun," "that he came surprises me." Norwegian strongly prefers not to leave such a heavy clause sitting in the front subject slot. Instead it extraposes the heavy clause to the end and parks a lightweight det in the subject slot as a stand-in.
| Heavy subject up front (stiff) | Extraposed with det (natural) |
|---|---|
| Å danse er morsomt. | Det er morsomt å danse. |
| At han kom, overrasker meg. | Det overrasker meg at han kom. |
| Å se deg er fint. | Det er fint å se deg. |
Det er morsomt å danse.
It's fun to dance.
Det er fint å se deg.
It's nice to see you.
Det overrasker meg at han kom.
It surprises me that he came.
The mechanism is identical to English: "It's fun to dance," "It surprises me that he came." The det is a placeholder; the real content is the extraposed å-infinitive or at-clause at the end. The left-hand "heavy subject" versions are grammatical but sound stilted — Norwegian, like English, prefers to lead with the light det and save the bulky clause for last.
Det er viktig å sove nok.
It's important to get enough sleep.
Det er synd at du må gå allerede.
It's a shame you have to leave already.
Cleft sentences: det er … som
Expletive det also builds cleft sentences — a way to spotlight one element by wrapping it in a det er … som frame, exactly like English "It is X that/who …". You take a plain sentence and lift the part you want to emphasise into the det er … som slot.
Det er deg jeg vil snakke med.
It's you I want to talk to.
Det var i fjor vi flyttet hit.
It was last year that we moved here.
Det er Anna som har bursdag i dag.
It's Anna who has a birthday today.
In Det er Anna som har bursdag, the cleft foregrounds Anna. The det is once again a dummy — it points at nothing — and som introduces the rest of the clause. Clefting is extremely common in everyday speech (informal) as well as in writing (formal); it is the standard Norwegian way to put one word in the spotlight.
det versus den: the dummy is always det
A quick but important point. The neuter det is the only form used for the dummy subject — never the common-gender den, even when a nearby noun is common gender. The expletive has no gender to agree with, because it stands for nothing.
Det er en fin dag.
It's a nice day. (dag is common gender, but the dummy is still det)
You might expect den to match dag (common gender), but the dummy subject is fixed as det. Agreement does not apply to a word that refers to nothing.
Common Mistakes
❌ Regner.
Incorrect — the dummy subject is missing.
✅ Det regner.
It's raining.
Norwegian is not pro-drop. A weather verb still needs a subject, and that subject is det. You can never leave the slot empty, however meaningless the subject is.
❌ Er kaldt i dag.
Incorrect — no subject filling the slot.
✅ Det er kaldt i dag.
It's cold today.
Same problem with an adjective predicate. Er kaldt has no subject; det must fill the front position before the verb.
❌ Å se deg er fint, men også er morsomt å danse.
Incorrect — second clause drops the extraposition dummy.
✅ Det er fint å se deg, og det er morsomt å danse.
It's nice to see you, and it's fun to dance.
When the real subject is an infinitive phrase, extrapose it and lead with det. Each clause needs its own det placeholder.
❌ Den er sent.
Incorrect — common-gender den used as the dummy subject.
✅ Det er sent.
It's late.
The dummy subject is always neuter det, never den. The expletive has nothing to agree with.
❌ Overrasker meg at han kom.
Incorrect — extraposed at-clause with no det in the subject slot.
✅ Det overrasker meg at han kom.
It surprises me that he came.
When you push the at-clause to the end, det must hold the front. Without it, the verb overrasker has no subject.
Key Takeaways
- Norwegian is not pro-drop: the subject slot must be filled, so subjectless clauses use the dummy det ("it").
- Weather and ambient verbs: Det regner, Det snør. Time and states: Det er sent, Det er langt til byen.
- Extraposition: a heavy infinitive or at-clause moves to the end and det props up the front: Det er fint å se deg, Det overrasker meg at han kom.
- Clefts spotlight an element with det er … som: Det er Anna som har bursdag.
- The dummy is always neuter det, never den — it refers to nothing, so it has nothing to agree with. Map it onto English dummy "it."
Now practice Norwegian
Reading grammar gets you part of the way. The exercises are where it sticks — free, no signup needed.
Start learning Norwegian→Related Topics
- The Presentative det: det er / det finnesA2 — Norwegian's 'there is/are' is det — a dummy that introduces a NEW, indefinite thing which then follows the verb (det er en katt i hagen). It never agrees with number: always det, even before plurals (det er mange biler).
- Extraposition: Heavy Subjects and ObjectsB2 — How Norwegian shifts a heavy å-clause or at-clause to the end of the sentence and holds its slot with an anticipatory det (Det er fint å se deg) — and why front-heavy clausal subjects sound stilted.
- Saying 'it': den vs detA2 — How to translate English 'it' into Norwegian — den for common-gender referents, det for neuter referents, and det as the dummy subject for weather, time and abstract statements.
- The V2 Rule: Verb SecondA1 — The single most important rule of Norwegian word order — in every declarative main clause the finite verb sits in second position, with exactly one constituent in front of it.
- Presentational det and the Definiteness RestrictionB2 — The det + verb + indefinite-subject construction that introduces new referents — and why the logical subject must stay indefinite, so there is no Norwegian equivalent of English 'there's the cat'.
- Impersonal Passives and Expletive detC1 — The Germanic impersonal passive — det blir danset, det arbeides med saken, her må det ryddes — where even objectless intransitives passivise and expletive det fills slot 1, a structure English cannot form.