Entreprenøren kan ikke bare kontrollere konkurransegrunnlaget, men også signere kontrollrapporten.

Because Norwegian usually adds the definite article to the end of the noun.

• entreprenør = an entrepreneur / a contractor
• entreprenøren = the entrepreneur / the contractor

So -en here is the definite ending for a singular common-gender noun. This is very different from English, where the is a separate word.

Compare:

• en entreprenør = a contractor
• entreprenøren = the contractor

Because Norwegian normally writes compound nouns as one single word.

So:

• konkurranse + grunnlag → konkurransegrunnlag
• kontroll + rapport → kontrollrapport

Then the definite ending is added to the whole compound:

• konkurransegrunnlaget = the tender/specification basis
• kontrollrapporten = the inspection/control report

This is very common in Norwegian. Where English often uses two or more words, Norwegian often combines them into one compound noun.

That depends on the gender of the head noun, which is usually the last part of the compound.

• grunnlag is a neuter noun, so the definite singular form is grunnlaget
• rapport is a common-gender noun, so the definite singular form is rapporten

So:

• konkurransegrunnlag → konkurransegrunnlaget
• kontrollrapport → kontrollrapporten

A useful rule: in Norwegian compounds, the last element usually decides the grammatical gender and the inflection.

This is the Norwegian pattern for not only ... but also ...

So:

• ikke bare = not only
• men også = but also

In this sentence, it connects two parallel actions:

• kontrollere konkurransegrunnlaget
• signere kontrollrapporten

So the structure means that the contractor can do both things, not just the first one.

It is important that the two parts are parallel. Here both are infinitive verbs:

• kontrollere
• signere

That makes the sentence neat and natural.

Because they come after the modal verb kan.

After modal verbs in Norwegian, the next verb is normally in the bare infinitive, without å:

• kan kontrollere
• kan signere

This is similar to English:

• can control
• can sign

Not:

• can to control
• can to sign

The same thing happens with other modal verbs too, such as skal, vil, må, and bør.

Because in a normal Norwegian main clause, the finite verb comes early in the sentence, and ikke usually comes after that finite verb.

Here:

• Entreprenøren = subject
• kan = finite verb
• ikke = negation

So the natural order is:

• Entreprenøren kan ikke ...

not

• Entreprenøren ikke kan ...

This is part of standard Norwegian word order. English speakers often notice this because Norwegian negation placement is different from English in some sentence types.

Because ikke bare ... men også ... is a fixed pair.

• ikke bare introduces the first item
• men også introduces the second item

If you said only også, the sentence would lose that balanced not only ... but also ... structure.

So men også is not just adding information; it is completing the comparison started by ikke bare.

Yes. Norwegian is omitting repeated words because they are already understood.

The full expanded version would be something like:

• Entreprenøren kan ikke bare kontrollere konkurransegrunnlaget, men kan også signere kontrollrapporten.

The second kan is often left out because it is easy to understand from the first part. This kind of omission is very common and natural in both Norwegian and English.

English does the same thing:

• The contractor can not only review the tender documents, but also sign the report.

Not always. This is a very useful vocabulary point.

In Norwegian, entreprenør often means contractor, especially in construction, procurement, or project work. In some contexts it can refer to someone who runs projects or business ventures, but in many technical or legal contexts it is closer to contractor than to English entrepreneur.

So even though the words look similar, you should always check the context. This is a classic example of a word that can feel familiar to an English speaker but may not match perfectly in meaning.