Questions & Answers about På vintern är det kallt ute.
With seasons, Swedish normally uses på to express something that is generally true during that season:
- på vintern – in (the) winter / during winter
- på sommaren – in (the) summer
- på hösten, på våren – in (the) autumn, in (the) spring
I vintern is not used in standard Swedish. You can say i vinter (without -n) but that means this coming winter / this winter (a specific winter), not winter in general.
So:
- På vintern är det kallt ute. = In winter (as a rule), it’s cold outside.
- I vinter blir det säkert kallt. = This coming winter, it will probably be cold.
Vintern is the definite form: vinter (winter) → vintern (the winter).
Swedish often uses the definite form to talk about something in general when it’s a unique period or concept, like seasons, parts of the day, or body parts:
- På vintern är det kallt. – In winter, it’s cold.
- På sommaren badar vi. – In summer, we go swimming.
- På kvällen är jag trött. – In the evening, I’m tired.
Using bare vinter here (på vinter) is ungrammatical. For a general seasonal statement, you need på vintern (the winter, in general).
Swedish has a V2 word order rule in main clauses: the finite verb must be in second position in the sentence.
- Basic form: Det är kallt ute.
- 1st element: Det (subject)
- 2nd element: är (verb)
If you move a time or place expression to the front, that becomes element 1, so the verb must still be element 2:
- På vintern är det kallt ute.
- 1st element: På vintern (time expression)
- 2nd element: är (verb)
- 3rd element: det (subject)
You cannot say ✗ På vintern det är kallt ute – that breaks the V2 rule.
In this sentence, det is a dummy (formal) subject, not a real “it” that refers back to anything. Swedish, like English, uses a dummy subject for weather, temperatures, and similar impersonal expressions:
- Det är kallt ute. – It’s cold outside.
- Det regnar. – It’s raining.
- Det snöar. – It’s snowing.
In these cases, det doesn’t point to any specific thing; it just fills the subject position required by the grammar.
Kall is an adjective. It changes form depending on gender/number and how it’s used:
- en kall dag – a cold day (common gender, en)
- ett kallt hus – a cold house (neuter, ett)
- kalla dagar – cold days (plural)
In Det är kallt ute, the adjective is used predicatively (after a verb) together with the dummy det. In weather expressions with det, the adjective almost always appears in the neuter singular form:
- Det är kallt. – It’s cold.
- Det är varmt. – It’s warm.
- Det är mörkt. – It’s dark.
So kallt here is the neuter predicative form, which is the natural choice with impersonal det in this kind of sentence.
Ute is an adverb, meaning outside / outdoors.
- kallt describes a quality (cold) → adjective
- ute describes place (where?) → adverb
You can’t use ute the same way as an adjective. For example:
- Det är kallt ute. – correct
- ✗ Det är ute kallt. – ungrammatical word order
- ✗ En ute dag – also wrong; ute doesn’t work as an attributive adjective.
Think of ute as answering “where?”: Where is it cold? → ute (outside).
Yes. På vintern är det kallt is perfectly correct and common.
Difference in nuance:
- På vintern är det kallt. – In winter it’s cold (in general, unspecified where).
- På vintern är det kallt ute. – In winter it’s cold outside (explicitly talking about the outdoor temperature).
You add ute when you specifically want to contrast outside with inside or emphasize outdoor conditions.
All three are related to being outside, but they’re used differently.
ute – “(being) outside,” state/location
- Jag är ute. – I’m outside.
- På vintern är det kallt ute.
ut – “(going) out,” movement from inside to outside
- Jag går ut. – I’m going out.
- Han kastar bollen ut. – He throws the ball out.
utomhus – “outdoors,” more formal/explicit, often used where indoors/outdoors is contrasted
- Barnen leker utomhus. – The children are playing outdoors.
- Rökning är förbjuden inomhus men tillåten utomhus.
In this sentence, you describe the state of being outside, so ute is the natural choice.
The most natural word orders are:
- På vintern är det kallt ute.
- Det är kallt ute på vintern.
You can also say:
- På vintern är det ute kallt. – This sounds strange and is rarely, if ever, used.
Adverbs like ute normally come after the predicative adjective kallt in this type of sentence. So stick to:
- … är det kallt ute.
- Det är kallt ute på vintern.
You don’t have to start with På vintern. Both are correct:
- På vintern är det kallt ute. – Fronted time expression; focuses a bit more on the time (“As for winter, it’s cold outside then”).
- Det är kallt ute på vintern. – More neutral, often feels slightly more “default” in spoken language.
The meaning is essentially the same; the difference is mostly about information structure and emphasis, not grammar correctness.
In Swedish, seasons are not capitalized unless they appear at the beginning of a sentence:
- Jag gillar vintern. – I like winter.
- På vintern är det kallt ute.
- Vintern är lång här. – capitalized only because it’s the first word.
This follows the general rule that Swedish only capitalizes:
- the first word of a sentence,
- proper names (people, places, brands, etc.).
So vintern, sommaren, våren, hösten are all lowercase in normal use.
Approximate IPA and tips:
På – /poː/
- Long å like the vowel in British “paw”.
vintern – /ˈvɪn.tɛrn/
- vi- like “vin” in English “vinyl”, but shorter.
- -tern: short e (like “met”), then rn in one syllable.
är – /ɛːr/
- Long ä like a long version of the vowel in “bed”.
- The r is usually a tapped/rolled or front r.
det – in normal speech often /de/ (the t is usually silent in everyday pronunciation).
kallt – /kalːt/
- a as in “father”, but a bit shorter.
- Double l means the l is long.
- Final t is pronounced.
ute – /ˈʉː.tɛ/
- u is the Swedish /ʉː/, a front rounded vowel (lips rounded, tongue forward), no exact English equivalent.
- Stress on u-, second syllable with short e like in “met”.
Spoken smoothly, it sounds roughly like:
/poː ˈvɪn.tɛrn ɛːr de kalːt ˈʉː.tɛ/.