Hun tilgir ham.

Because hun is the subject form of she.

In Hun tilgir ham, hun is the person doing the action, so Norwegian uses hun.

Compare:

• Hun tilgir ham. = she forgives him
• Han tilgir henne. = he forgives her

Here, henne is the object form of hun.

Because ham is the traditional object form of han.

In this sentence, ham is receiving the action, so it is the object:

• Hun = subject
• tilgir = verb
• ham = object

So:

• han = he
• ham = him

A useful comparison:

• Han tilgir henne.
• Hun tilgir ham.

In everyday spoken Norwegian, many people say han as an object too, but ham is a standard written form in Bokmål.

The base form is å tilgi, meaning to forgive.

So:

• å tilgi = infinitive
• tilgir = present tense

This sentence is in the present tense:

• Hun tilgir ham. = she forgives him / she is forgiving him

That -r marks the present tense.

In Norwegian, the present tense is often formed with -r:

• å komme → kommer
• å bo → bor
• å tilgi → tilgir

So tilgir means forgives or is forgiving, depending on context.

In this simple sentence, yes: subject + verb + object.

So:

• Hun = subject
• tilgir = verb
• ham = object

That gives: Hun tilgir ham.

But Norwegian also follows the verb-second rule in main clauses. That means the finite verb usually stays in the second position:

• I dag tilgir hun ham. = Today she forgives him.

So the basic order looks English-like here, but Norwegian word order becomes more distinctive in other sentence types.

Because Norwegian does not use do-support the way English does.

English often uses do/does/did:

• She does not forgive him.
• Does she forgive him?

Norwegian does not need an extra verb for that:

• Hun tilgir ham ikke. = She does not forgive him.
• Tilgir hun ham? = Does she forgive him?

The main verb tilgir stays as the main verb.

For a negative sentence, add ikke:

• Hun tilgir ham ikke. = She does not forgive him.

For a yes/no question, invert the verb and subject:

• Tilgir hun ham? = Does she forgive him?

This is a very common pattern in Norwegian.

A rough guide is til-yeer.

The important thing is that the g in gi is not pronounced like the g in English go. It sounds more like a y sound here.

So tilgir is roughly:

• til
  • yeer

It is only an approximation, but it helps avoid pronouncing a hard English g.

It is not the most predictable verb, so it is best to learn its main forms as vocabulary.

Useful forms are:

• å tilgi = to forgive
• tilgir = forgives / is forgiving
• tilga or tilgav = forgave
• har tilgitt = has forgiven

So yes, you should treat it as a verb whose forms are worth memorizing.

Yes. You can forgive someone and also say what you forgive them for.

Examples:

• Hun tilgir ham. = She forgives him.
• Hun tilgir ham for det. = She forgives him for that.
• Han tilga henne for feilen. = He forgave her for the mistake.

So the person is usually the direct object, and the reason can be added with for.

Yes, especially in standard written Bokmål, but usage varies.

A learner should know this:

• ham is a correct and standard written object form
• many native speakers, especially in everyday speech, often use han instead

So Hun tilgir ham is perfectly good Norwegian, and it is a very useful model sentence for learning subject and object pronouns.