"Det var hvit sand på strendene."

Translation: There was white sand on the beaches.

[willball1982]

What is the difference between 'It' and 'There' with 'Det'? In this case, depending on the preceding sentence or question, both would be valid. But I struggle in general to differentiate. It is context sensitive?

[fveldig]

It's context sensitive. I think the problem is that Norwegian doesn't differentiate between 'it is' and 'there is/are', while English does.