Kalkposen har tørr kalk.

Because Norwegian usually forms compounds as one word.

• kalk = lime / chalk
• pose = bag

So kalkpose means lime bag / chalk bag, and kalkposen means the lime bag / the chalk bag.

This is very common in Norwegian. Where English often uses two words, Norwegian often prefers a compound:

• bokhylle = bookshelf
• kaffekopp = coffee cup
• kalkpose = lime bag / chalk bag

The main noun is usually the last part, so pose tells you that the whole word is a kind of bag.

The ending -en marks the noun as definite singular, meaning the ....

So:

• en kalkpose = a lime bag / a chalk bag
• kalkposen = the lime bag / the chalk bag

In Bokmål, definite nouns are often formed by adding an ending to the noun instead of using a separate word like English the.

So kalkposen literally contains the idea of the bag inside the word itself.

Because Norwegian normally puts definiteness on the noun itself.

English:

• the bag

Norwegian:

• posen

So in kalkposen, the ending -en already means the.

That is why you do not say something like the kalkposen in Norwegian. The noun ending already does that job.

Har is the present tense of å ha, which usually means to have.

In this sentence, har can be understood as:

• has
• contains

So Kalkposen har tørr kalk means something like:

• The lime bag has dry lime
• The lime bag contains dry lime

In everyday Norwegian, ha is often used this way for what something contains or holds.

Because kalk here is being treated as an indefinite singular mass noun, and the adjective agrees with that form.

In Bokmål adjective agreement works like this:

• en tørr pose = a dry bag
• et tørt hus = a dry house
• tørre poser = dry bags

Here, kalk is not plural, and it is not definite. It is just the substance lime/chalk in a general sense, so tørr is the normal form here.

That is why:

• tørr kalk = dry lime / dry chalk

not:

• tørt kalk
• tørre kalk

Because kalk is being used as a mass noun here, like a material or substance.

This works much like English:

• dry sand
• cold water
• fresh milk

You normally do not need a/an when talking about a substance in a general, uncountable way.

So:

• tørr kalk = dry lime / dry chalk

If you added an article, it would sound more like you were talking about one specific unit or instance, not the substance in general.

Yes, grammatically it is singular, but more importantly it is a mass noun.

That means it refers to a substance rather than countable individual items. So even though it is singular in form, it behaves a bit differently from ordinary count nouns.

Compare:

• en pose = a bag
• kalk = lime / chalk as a material

So in tørr kalk, the word kalk is not plural, but it is also not really being counted.

The sentence follows the normal Norwegian main-clause order:

Subject + verb + object

• Kalkposen = subject
• har = verb
• tørr kalk = object

So:

• Kalkposen har tørr kalk.
• The lime bag has dry lime.

This is a very standard Norwegian sentence pattern.

Because attributive adjectives in Norwegian usually come before the noun, just as in English.

So:

• tørr kalk = dry lime
• stor pose = big bag
• grønn bil = green car

This is the normal order when the adjective directly describes the noun.

Yes, but it would mean something different.

• Kalkposen har tørr kalk = The lime bag contains dry lime.
• Kalkposen er tørr = The lime bag is dry.

In the original sentence, tørr describes kalk. In Kalkposen er tørr, tørr would describe kalkposen.

So the adjective changes what it refers to depending on the sentence structure.

It matters because the definite ending depends on gender.

The noun pose is normally masculine in Bokmål, so:

• en pose
• posen

Since kalkpose ends in pose, it follows the same pattern:

• en kalkpose
• kalkposen

That is why the definite form is -en here.