Lagerboden er tom.

Because Norwegian forms compound nouns very freely. Lagerboden is made from:

• lager = storage / stock / warehouse
• bod = shed / small room / storage room

Together, lagerbod means something like storage shed, stockroom, or storage room, depending on context.

Then lagerboden is the definite form: the storage room / the stockroom.

This is very normal in Norwegian. Where English often uses multiple words, Norwegian often prefers one compound word.

The ending -en marks the noun as definite singular for many masculine/common-gender nouns in Bokmål.

So:

• en lagerbod = a storage room
• lagerboden = the storage room

Unlike English, Norwegian often puts the equivalent of the at the end of the noun instead of using a separate word.

Because in Norwegian, definiteness is usually built into the noun itself.

Compare:

• English: the storage room
• Norwegian: lagerboden

That -en already carries the meaning of the.

This is one of the biggest structural differences from English. In simple sentences like this, Norwegian usually does not add a separate article before the noun.

Er is the present tense of å være (to be).

So:

• jeg er = I am
• du er = you are
• han/hun er = he/she is
• lagerboden er = the storage room is

Norwegian does not change the present-tense verb by person the way English does. The form er stays the same no matter who or what the subject is.

Because lagerboden is a common-gender singular noun, and the adjective is agreeing with that.

With tom (empty), the basic agreement pattern is:

• common gender singular: tom
• neuter singular: tomt
• plural: tomme

So:

• Lagerboden er tom. = The storage room is empty.
• Huset er tomt. = The house is empty.
• Rommene er tomme. = The rooms are empty.

Since lagerbod is not neuter, tom is the correct form here.

Because tom here is a predicative adjective, not an adjective directly placed before the noun.

Compare these two patterns:

• den tomme lagerboden = the empty storage room

  • here the adjective comes before the noun, so it takes the definite/plural form tomme

• lagerboden er tom = the storage room is empty

  • here the adjective comes after er, so it stays in the normal agreement form: tom

This is a very important distinction in Norwegian:

• attributive adjective (before noun) → often tomme
• predicative adjective (after er/blir/virker, etc.) → tom/tomt/tomme depending on agreement

The word order is very straightforward:

• Lagerboden = subject
• er = verb
• tom = predicate adjective

So the pattern is:

Subject + verb + adjective

This is the same basic order as English in a sentence like:

The storage room is empty.

In Bokmål, lagerbod is normally a common-gender noun.

That is why you get:

• en lagerbod
• lagerboden
• lagerboder
• lagerbodene

And that is also why the adjective is tom, not tomt.

Yes. Depending on the situation, it could be translated as:

• the storage room
• the stockroom
• the storage shed
• the storeroom

The exact English choice depends on what kind of place is being described. But the Norwegian grammar stays the same.

A rough guide for an English speaker would be:

LAH-ger-boo-den er tom

A few notes:

• lager: the g is pronounced
• bod has a long oo-like vowel
• er is often pronounced quite lightly in everyday speech
• tom has a long o sound, roughly like tohm

Pronunciation varies a bit by dialect, but this rough version will be understood.