Strømleverandøren sendte et brev.

Because Norwegian usually writes compound nouns as one word.

Here, strømleverandøren is made up of:

• strøm = electricity / power
• leverandør = supplier
• -en = the definite ending

So the full word means the electricity supplier.

This is very common in Norwegian. Where English often uses two words, Norwegian often makes one compound word:

• bokhandel = bookshop
• sommerferie = summer holiday
• strømregning = electricity bill

The last part usually decides the grammatical gender and how the word is inflected.

The ending -en is the definite article suffix for many singular nouns in Norwegian.

So:

• en leverandør = a supplier
• leverandøren = the supplier

And with the full compound:

• en strømleverandør = an electricity supplier
• strømleverandøren = the electricity supplier

Unlike English, Norwegian often puts the at the end of the noun instead of using a separate word before it.

Because in Norwegian, the noun itself often carries the meaning of the.

So English:

• the electricity supplier

Norwegian:

• strømleverandøren

The definite ending already does the job, so you do not normally add another word meaning the in a simple noun phrase.

A useful extra note: when there is an adjective, Norwegian often uses double definiteness:

• den nye strømleverandøren = the new electricity supplier

So in that case you get both:

• a separate definite word: den
• and the definite ending: -en

Because brev is a neuter noun in Norwegian.

Norwegian nouns have grammatical gender. In Bokmål, the main articles are:

• en for common gender
• et for neuter

So:

• et brev = a letter
• brevet = the letter

You simply have to learn the gender of each noun as you learn the word. A good habit is to memorize nouns with their article:

• et brev
• en leverandør
• en strømleverandør

Sendte is the preterite (simple past) of the verb sende = to send.

Important forms:

• å sende = to send
• sender = sends / is sending
• sendte = sent
• har sendt = has sent / have sent

So in this sentence:

• Strømleverandøren sendte et brev.
• The electricity supplier sent a letter.

A small thing to notice: the past participle is sendt, but the simple past is sendte.

Yes, in this sentence the order is very similar to English:

• Strømleverandøren = subject
• sendte = verb
• et brev = object

So it follows a normal subject–verb–object pattern.

However, Norwegian main clauses follow the V2 rule: the finite verb is usually in the second position.

For example:

• Strømleverandøren sendte et brev i går.
• I går sendte strømleverandøren et brev.

In the second sentence, I går comes first, so the verb sendte must still stay in second position, and the subject moves after it.

That is something English speakers often need to get used to.

In a simple sentence like this, it is mainly clear from word order and meaning.

• Strømleverandøren comes first, so it is understood as the subject.
• sendte is the verb.
• et brev comes after the verb, so it is the direct object.

Norwegian does not usually mark ordinary nouns with special case endings the way German does. So word order matters a lot.

Compare:

• Strømleverandøren sendte et brev. = The supplier sent a letter.
• Et brev sendte strømleverandøren. = A letter, the supplier sent.

The second version is possible, but it sounds marked because the object has been moved to the front.

No. In Norwegian, common nouns are not capitalized.

So you write:

• strømleverandøren
• brev

not:

• Strømleverandøren
• Brev

In this sentence, Strømleverandøren has a capital S only because it is the first word of the sentence, not because it is a noun.

Only proper nouns are regularly capitalized, such as:

• Norge
• Oslo
• Per

The letter ø represents a vowel sound that does not exist naturally in standard English.

A rough guide:

• it is similar to the vowel in French peur
• or German schön
• but there is no perfect English equivalent

For an English speaker, a rough approximation is to start from a sound like the vowel in bird or her, but with rounded lips.

So:

• strøm
• -døren / -døren-like sound in leverandøren

Also remember that ø and o are completely different letters in Norwegian.

The base form you would look up in a dictionary is strømleverandør.

Its forms are:

• en strømleverandør = an electricity supplier
• strømleverandøren = the electricity supplier
• strømleverandører = electricity suppliers
• strømleverandørene = the electricity suppliers

So when you see a noun with a definite ending like -en, it is often useful to mentally remove the ending to find the dictionary form.