Pengene er bortkastet.

In Norwegian, penger is the normal word for money, and it is grammatically plural. So pengene literally looks like the monies, but in natural English it is just the money.

The singular en penge does exist, but it is much less common in everyday use and often means something like a coin, a penny, or appears in fixed expressions.

-ene is the definite plural ending.

So:

• penger = money / money in general
• pengene = the money / that money

This tells you the sentence is talking about a specific amount of money that is already known from the context.

Bortkastet means wasted.

It comes from the verb å kaste bort, which means to throw away or to waste. In this sentence, bortkastet describes the money as something that was wasted.

Because Norwegian often forms a single participle or adjective-like word from a verb + particle combination.

The basic verb is å kaste bort, but the form used here is commonly written as bortkastet when it functions like an adjective meaning wasted.

So a learner will often see both patterns:

• å kaste bort penger = to waste money
• pengene er bortkastet = the money is wasted

This is a very common question.

With ordinary adjectives, Norwegian often shows plural agreement after er:

• Bilen er dyr = The car is expensive
• Bilene er dyre = The cars are expensive

But bortkastet is a past participle used predicatively, and in this kind of sentence Norwegian very often uses the unchanged form:

• Pengene er bortkastet
• Dørene er låst

Before a noun, you are more likely to see the -e form:

• de bortkastede pengene = the wasted money

So Pengene er bortkastet is the normal form here.

Er is the present tense of å være = to be.

The sentence is describing a state or judgment:

• Pengene er bortkastet = The money is wasted

It is not mainly describing the action of wasting the money. It is describing the result or the speaker’s opinion about that money.

Yes.

The verb er is present tense, but the sentence describes a current result of something that happened earlier. This works very much like English:

• The money is wasted

The wasting may have happened already, but the speaker is saying that, now, the money counts as wasted.

They are similar, but there is a small difference in feel.

• Pengene er bortkastet sounds more like an evaluation or conclusion: the money was a waste
• Pengene er kastet bort sounds more verbal and passive: the money has been wasted or thrown away

In many situations, the meaning overlaps. But bortkastet is especially natural when you want to say that spending the money was pointless.

Usually not as a simple standalone sentence.

Pengene refers to specific money already known in the conversation. Penger er bortkastet sounds too bare on its own and is not the normal way to say it.

If you want to speak more generally, Norwegian usually phrases it differently, for example:

• Penger blir ofte bortkastet på dette = Money is often wasted on this
• Det er bortkastet å bruke penger på dette = It is a waste to spend money on this

You say:

Pengene er ikke bortkastet.

In a normal main clause, ikke usually comes after the finite verb, so it goes after er.

You say:

Pengene var bortkastet.

Here var is the past tense of å være. The structure stays the same; only the verb changes.