Det ser ut til at yoghurt og epler er billigere i dag.

to be

Breakdown of Det ser ut til at yoghurt og epler er billigere i dag.

• i dag: today
• og: and
• det: it

Questions & Answers about Det ser ut til at yoghurt og epler er billigere i dag.

Why does the sentence start with det? What does it refer to?

Here, det is a dummy subject. It does not refer to a specific thing like it often does in English.

In the expression det ser ut til at ..., Norwegian uses det to introduce the idea:

• Det ser ut til at ... = It seems that ...
• literally, something like It looks like that ...

So in this sentence, det is just part of the fixed structure and does not mean a particular object.

What does ser ut til at mean as a whole?

Ser ut til at is a very common Norwegian expression meaning:

• it seems that
• it looks like
• it appears that

So:

• Det ser ut til at yoghurt og epler er billigere i dag. = It seems that yogurt and apples are cheaper today.

You can think of it as a chunk:

• det ser ut til at = it seems that

This is more natural than translating each word one by one.

Why is at used here?