Vi herder plantene før vi planter dem ut.

In Norwegian, the is usually built into the noun as an ending.

• plante = plant
• planter = plants
• plantene = the plants

So plantene already includes the idea of the.

You can also see de plantene, but that usually feels more like those plants or adds extra emphasis.

Here herder comes from the verb herde, not from anything related to animals.

In general, herde means to harden, to toughen, or to temper. In gardening, herde planter means to harden off plants: to gradually get them used to outdoor conditions before moving them outside permanently.

So this is a very natural gardening word.

They are in the present tense.

For many Norwegian verbs:

• infinitive: herde
• present: herder

and

• infinitive: plante
• present: planter

A very common pattern is:

• infinitive ending in -e
• present tense ending in -r

Because før vi planter dem ut is a full clause of its own, and it needs its own subject.

So the sentence is:

• Vi herder plantene
• før vi planter dem ut

This works just like English We harden the plants before we plant them out.

Because før introduces a subordinate clause.

In Norwegian:

• main clauses usually follow the verb-second pattern
• subordinate clauses do not

So after før, the normal order is:

• før vi planter dem ut

not

• før planter vi dem ut

That second version sounds wrong in standard Norwegian.

Because dem is the object form, while de is the subject form.

• de = they
• dem = them

Here, the plants are receiving the action of the verb planter, so Norwegian uses the object pronoun:

• vi planter dem ut

In spoken Norwegian, many people do not clearly distinguish de and dem in pronunciation, but in standard written Bokmål this difference is important.

Plante ut is a particle verb, similar to English plant out.

The particle ut adds the idea of moving the plants out, usually into their final outdoor growing place.

So:

• plante = plant
• plante ut = plant out / put out into the garden or outside bed

In Norwegian, these particles are often written separately from the finite verb in normal sentences.

With a short object pronoun like dem, Norwegian normally places the pronoun before the particle.

So:

• planter dem ut = natural
• planter ut dem = not the normal choice here

This is common with many particle verbs:

• skrive det ned
• kaste henne ut
• ta den med

With a full noun instead of a pronoun, word order can be different. For example, planter ut plantene is very natural.

Because Norwegian often uses the present tense for future or planned actions when the timing is already clear from context.

Here, før makes the sequence clear:

• first: vi herder plantene
• later: vi planter dem ut

So present tense sounds completely natural.

English does something similar too in sentences like:

• We wash the dishes before we leave.

In standard Norwegian, that is generally not the normal way to say it.

English can say before planting them out, but Norwegian usually prefers a full clause:

• før vi planter dem ut

If you want a more compact version, Norwegian often uses a noun phrase instead, for example:

• før utplanting = before planting out / before transplanting outdoors

So for a normal everyday sentence, før vi planter dem ut is the natural choice.