Været er ekstremt kaldt.

to be

Breakdown of Været er ekstremt kaldt.

• været: the weather
• kald: cold
• ekstremt: extremely

Questions & Answers about Været er ekstremt kaldt.

Why is it været and not just vær?

Vær means weather as a noun in its basic dictionary form.

Været is the definite singular form, literally the weather. In Norwegian, when talking about the weather in a general or current sense, the definite form is very common.

So:

• vær = weather
• været = the weather

In this sentence, været sounds natural because it refers to the weather as the thing being discussed right now.

---

Why does Norwegian put -et at the end instead of using a separate word like the?

Norwegian usually marks definiteness by adding an ending to the noun.

For neuter nouns like vær, the definite singular ending is often -et:

• et vær = a weather condition / a spell of weather
• været = the weather

This is one of the big differences from English. Instead of a separate article like the, Norwegian often attaches definiteness directly to the noun.

---

Why is it er here?