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Learn Hardcore Norwegian: Desember er kald. - December is cold.

Hardcore Norwegian
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/Desember er kald.

Desember er kald.

Desember er kald.

December is cold.

Breakdown of Desember er kald.

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Questions & Answers about Desember er kald.

Why is Desember capitalized? Aren’t month names usually lowercase in Norwegian?

Yes. In Norwegian, month names are normally written with a lowercase letter: desember.

It is capitalized here only because it is the first word of the sentence.

desember er kald = mid-sentence
Desember er kald. = at the beginning of a sentence

Unlike English, Norwegian does not normally capitalize month names just because they are month names.

Why is it desember and not December?

Because desember is the standard Norwegian spelling of the month name.

Norwegian often spells words in a way that matches Norwegian pronunciation and spelling patterns better than English does. So the English December becomes Norwegian desember.

What does er mean?

Er is the present tense of å være, which means to be.

So here:

Desember = December
er = is
kald = cold

So Desember er kald is literally December is cold.

Why is there no word for the before Desember?

Month names normally do not take an article in Norwegian, just like in English.

So you say:

Desember er kald. = December is cold.
Jeg liker desember. = I like December.

You would not normally say den desember here.

Why is it kald and not kaldt?

Because the adjective agrees with the noun it describes.

In this sentence, desember is treated as a singular common-gender noun, so the adjective stays in the basic form kald.

Compare:

en kald måned = a cold month
desember er kald = December is cold
et kaldt rom = a cold room
været er kaldt = the weather is cold
kalde dager = cold days

So kaldt would be used with a neuter noun, not with desember here.

Is kald the normal word for talking about weather or seasons?

Yes. Kald is the normal adjective for cold, including cold weather, cold times of year, and cold places.

Examples:

Vinteren er kald. = The winter is cold.
Det er kaldt ute. = It is cold outside.
Desember er kald. = December is cold.

So this use is completely normal.

What is the word order in Desember er kald?

The basic word order here is:

subject + verb + adjective

Desember = subject
er = verb
kald = predicative adjective

This is a very common pattern in Norwegian.

Also, Norwegian main clauses follow the verb-second rule. That means the finite verb usually comes in the second position. For example:

Desember er kald.
I Norge er desember kald.

In both sentences, er stays in second position.

Is this sentence natural Norwegian, or would people usually say it differently?

It is grammatical and understandable, but in everyday speech Norwegians might often say something a little more specific, such as:

Det er kaldt i desember. = It is cold in December.
Desember er en kald måned. = December is a cold month.

So Desember er kald is correct, but it can sound a bit general or slightly more written/stylized than the alternatives.

How is Desember er kald pronounced?

A rough guide is:

deh-SEM-ber er kal

A few useful notes:

The stress is on the second syllable of desember: de-SEM-ber
er is a short word, like is
In kald, the final d is often weak or not clearly pronounced in many accents

Pronunciation varies by dialect, especially the r, but this rough version will help you recognize and say the sentence.

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