Det luktar kaffe i köket.

It smells like coffee in the kitchen.

Breakdown of Det luktar kaffe i köket.

• kaffet: the coffee
• i: in
• det: it
• köket: the kitchen
• lukta: to smell

Questions & Answers about Det luktar kaffe i köket.

Why do we need det at the start? Can I just say Luktar kaffe i köket?

In Swedish you almost always need a subject, even when English uses it as a “dummy” or doesn’t feel like it has a real subject.

• Det here is a dummy subject, similar to English it in It smells like coffee.
• Luktar is a verb that must have some subject in normal word order, so you say Det luktar …

✅ Natural: Det luktar kaffe i köket.
❌ Weird/elliptical: Luktar kaffe i köket.

The version without det might occur in very casual speech as a fragment, but it’s not standard full-sentence grammar.

What exactly does luktar mean? Is it like English smell?

Yes, luktar is the present tense of lukta, and it usually means to smell in the sense of to give off a smell / to have a smell.

So:

• Det luktar kaffe.
  → It smells like coffee / There’s a smell of coffee. (coffee is what you notice in the air)

Important nuance:

• lukta = have or emit a smell (neutral or slightly negative)
• If you want to say something smells nice, you can also use dofta:
  
  • Det doftar kaffe i köket. (more like “It has the aroma of coffee in the kitchen”, often pleasant or poetic)
• For a really bad smell, you might use stinka (“stink”):
  
  • Det stinker i köket. (“It stinks in the kitchen.”)

If you mean to smell something with your nose (an active action), you typically say:

• Jag känner lukten av kaffe. – “I smell (notice the smell of) coffee.”
• Jag luktar på kaffet. – “I sniff/smell the coffee.” (I put my nose to it)

Why is it Det luktar kaffe, not Det luktar som kaffe?

In Swedish, with verbs like lukta, smaka, låta, kännas, you normally don’t use som when you just want to say something smells / tastes / sounds like X.

So:

• ✅ Det luktar kaffe.
• ❌ Det luktar som kaffe. (possible but usually sounds odd or overly contrastive here)

Compare:

• Det smakar jordgubbar. – It tastes like strawberries.
• Det låter bra. – It sounds good.
• Det känns konstigt. – It feels strange.

You only add som in more special cases, for example when emphasizing a comparison:

• Det luktar som rök här inne. – “It smells like smoke in here,” with a bit more focus on “as if it were smoke.”
  Even there, many speakers would still just say Det luktar rök här inne.

Why is kaffe without an article? Why not ett kaffe or kaffet?

Kaffe is usually treated as a mass noun in Swedish, like water, sand, coffee in English when used generically.

In this sentence, kaffe refers to the smell of coffee in general, not specific cups of coffee:

• Det luktar kaffe. – It smells of (some) coffee.
  → No article; generic, uncountable use.

Compare:

• Jag vill ha kaffe. – I want (some) coffee.
• Kaffet är kallt. – The coffee is cold. (kaffet = the specific coffee we know about.)
• Ett kaffe can be used in café language to mean “a coffee (one serving)”, like ordering:
  
  • Jag tar ett kaffe. – I’ll have a coffee.

So here, kaffe is bare because we’re talking about the type of smell, not a specific, known batch of coffee.

Why is it i köket and not i ett kök or just i kök?

Kök is a neuter noun:

• ett kök – a kitchen
• köket – the kitchen
• kök – kitchens (indefinite plural)
• köken – the kitchens (definite plural)

In i köket, köket is definite: the kitchen.

You say i köket when you have a specific kitchen in mind, usually the one that belongs to the home, workplace, etc. That’s exactly like English in the kitchen when both speaker and listener know which kitchen.

Compare:

• Det luktar kaffe i köket.
  – It smells like coffee in the (known) kitchen.
• Det luktar kaffe i ett kök.
  – It smells like coffee in a kitchen (some, any kitchen – sounds more abstract or story-like).
• i kök (indefinite plural after i) would sound wrong in this sense; you’d normally use i kök only in very special, generic/plural contexts like regulations or statistics, not in a normal everyday sentence like this.

Could I say Det luktar kaffe från köket instead of i köket? What’s the difference?

Yes, you can, but the meaning shifts slightly:

• Det luktar kaffe i köket.
  → Inside the kitchen, the air smells of coffee. The smell is in that room.

• Det luktar kaffe från köket.
  → You are (probably) somewhere else, and the smell seems to come from the kitchen.

So i focuses on the location of the smell, while från highlights the source / where it’s coming from, often from the perspective of being outside that place.

Can I change the word order to I köket luktar det kaffe? Is that correct?

Yes, that is grammatically correct, just with a different emphasis.

Swedish has the V2 rule: the verb usually comes in second position in main clauses, no matter what comes first.

• Det first:

  • Det (1st position) luktar (2nd, verb) kaffe i köket.

• I köket first:

  • I köket (1st position) luktar (2nd, verb) det kaffe.

I köket luktar det kaffe:

• Sounds more like you’re specifically talking about the kitchen, maybe contrasting it with another room:
  
  • I vardagsrummet är det kallt, men i köket luktar det kaffe.

In everyday neutral speech, Det luktar kaffe i köket is more common.

Is luktar changed for person or number, like in English (I smell, he smells)?

No. Swedish verbs don’t change for person or number in the present tense.

For lukta:

• Jag luktar
• Du luktar
• Han/Hon/Den/Det luktar
• Vi luktar
• Ni luktar
• De luktar

Always luktar in present tense. The form lukta is the infinitive (dictionary form): att lukta = to smell (emit smell).

Why isn’t it Det är luktar kaffe like It is smelling of coffee?

Swedish does not form a present progressive (like English is smelling, is running) with är + verb-ing. Instead, it just uses the simple present for both:

• Det luktar kaffe.
  = It smells of coffee / It is smelling of coffee (right now).

Using är + verb is either:

• some other construction (är trött, är glad, etc.), or
• occasionally a special continuous form (håller på att… or är och…), but not in this sentence.

So Det är luktar kaffe is ungrammatical in Swedish. You must say Det luktar kaffe.

How would I talk about a nice smell versus a bad smell? Is luktar neutral?

Luktar is usually neutral or slightly negative, depending on context. For something that smells really nice, Swedes often prefer doftar.

• Neutral / basic:

  • Det luktar kaffe i köket. – There is a smell of coffee in the kitchen.

• Pleasant / aromatic:

  • Det doftar kaffe i köket. – It has the aroma of coffee in the kitchen (often positive, cozy).

• Clearly bad:

  • Det luktar illa i köket. – It smells bad in the kitchen.
  • Det stinker i köket. – It stinks in the kitchen.

So your original sentence with luktar is fine and natural; if you want to stress that it’s a nice smell, doftar is a good alternative.

What’s the pronunciation of Det luktar kaffe i köket? Any tricky parts?

Very roughly (using English-like hints):

• Det – often pronounced like “de” (the t is usually silent in everyday speech).
• luktar – LUK-tar. Short u like in British “look”, and a clear k-tar.
• kaffe – KAF-fe, with a short a (like cat but a bit different) and double f making the a short.
• i – like English “ee”.
• köket – roughly “SHUR-ket” or “CHUR-ket” to English ears:
  • kö: the ö is like the vowel in French “peu” or German “schön”.
  • k before ö becomes a soft sh/ch sound in standard Swedish.
  • -et: short e, then a soft t.

Very approximate IPA: [de ˈlʉktar ˈkafːɛ i ˈɕøːkɛt] (pronunciation varies by dialect).

How could I say I can smell coffee in the kitchen instead of It smells of coffee in the kitchen?

To focus on you as the smeller, you can say:

• Jag känner lukten av kaffe i köket.
  – Literally: I feel (sense) the smell of coffee in the kitchen.
• More simply, in many contexts:
  
  • Jag känner att det luktar kaffe i köket.
    – I feel/sense that it smells of coffee in the kitchen.

Your original sentence Det luktar kaffe i köket focuses on the situation (there is a coffee smell in the kitchen), not on who is smelling it.