Skill papiret fra plasten.

Because Skill is the imperative form of the verb å skille, which means to separate.

So:

• å skille = to separate
• skill! = separate!

In instructions, commands, and signs, Norwegian often starts directly with the imperative verb, just like English:

• Skill papiret fra plasten. = Separate the paper from the plastic.
• Les teksten. = Read the text.
• Åpne døren. = Open the door.

The dictionary form is å skille.

That is the infinitive form, the form you would normally look up in a dictionary.

A few related forms are:

• å skille = to separate
• skiller = separate / separates
• skilte = separated
• har skilt = have/has separated
• skill! = separate!

So in this sentence, skill is not a noun here; it is the command form of the verb.

Because Norwegian very often uses the definite form when talking about a specific thing, or when the context makes it clear which thing is meant.

Here:

• papiret = the paper
• plasten = the plastic

The endings show definiteness:

• papir → papiret
• plast → plasten

In an instruction like this, the speaker usually means the specific paper and plastic in front of you, or the paper and plastic parts of an item. That is why the definite form sounds natural.

This can feel different from English, because English sometimes uses a more general form in instructions, while Norwegian often prefers the definite form in practical directions.

Because Norwegian nouns have grammatical gender, and the definite singular ending depends on the gender.

• et papir → papiret
  (papir is a neuter noun)
• en plast / usually the material noun plast → plasten in definite form
  (plast is treated as a common-gender noun)

So the different endings are normal:

• common gender definite singular: -en
• neuter definite singular: -et

That is why you get:

• papiret
• plasten

Because the verb å skille often takes fra when you are separating one thing from another.

So:

• skille X fra Y = separate X from Y

In this sentence:

• papiret = the paper
• fra plasten = from the plastic

This matches English quite closely.

Other examples:

• Skill klærne fra skoene. = Separate the clothes from the shoes.
• De skilte barna fra de voksne. = They separated the children from the adults.

Yes. In an imperative sentence, the subject is usually not stated. It is understood.

So:

• Skill papiret fra plasten.

really means something like:

• (Du) skill papiret fra plasten.
• (You) separate the paper from the plastic.

But Norwegian normally leaves du out in commands, just like English usually leaves out you in commands.

The word order is:

• Skill = verb
• papiret = direct object
• fra plasten = prepositional phrase

So the pattern is:

• Verb + object + prepositional phrase

This is very common in imperative sentences.

You can think of it as:

• Separate
  • the paper
    • from the plastic

Yes, you probably could, and it would be understandable. But skill sounds more natural and everyday in this kind of instruction.

Norwegian often prefers the native verb å skille in practical contexts like sorting or separating materials.

So:

• Skill papiret fra plasten. = more natural/basic
• Separer papiret fra plasten. = understandable, but often less idiomatic in a simple instruction

No. Å skille can have several related meanings depending on context.

Common meanings include:

• to separate
• to divide
• to distinguish
• to divorce or to split up in some contexts

For example:

• Det er vanskelig å skille dem. = It is hard to tell them apart.
• De skilte seg i fjor. = They divorced / split up last year.

In Skill papiret fra plasten, the meaning is clearly separate.

No. Before i, y, ei, and øy, Norwegian sk is usually pronounced like English sh.

So skill sounds approximately like shill, not skill with a hard sk sound.

Roughly:

• skill ≈ shill
• skille ≈ shil-leh

This pronunciation rule is very important in Norwegian.

Here it most naturally means plastic as a material.

So plasten means the plastic. In a recycling or sorting instruction, that usually refers to the plastic part or the plastic material.

Likewise, papiret means the paper as the paper part/material.

So the sentence is about separating materials, not necessarily counting individual objects.

Yes, absolutely. It sounds very natural in a recycling, packaging, or waste-sorting context.

For example, if an item has both paper and plastic, a label might tell you:

• Skill papiret fra plasten.

That means you should separate the materials before throwing them away or recycling them.

Not completely wrong, but it would sound less natural in this specific instruction.

Using the definite forms:

• papiret
• plasten

makes the sentence sound like a concrete instruction about the actual materials involved.

So:

• Skill papiret fra plasten. = the natural instruction here

The indefinite/material forms:

• papir
• plast

sound more general and less tied to a specific item in front of you.

This sentence is standard Bokmål.

In Nynorsk, you would often see papiret as well, but other parts of the sentence might differ depending on style and choice of verb. For a learner, the important thing is that Skill papiret fra plasten is a normal Bokmål-style instruction.

Yes. In modern Norwegian, the imperative form is the same whether you are talking to one person or more than one person.

So Skill papiret fra plasten can mean:

• you, one person: separate the paper from the plastic
• you, several people: separate the paper from the plastic

Norwegian does not change the imperative verb the way some other languages do.