Vi snakker med presten.

Vi is the Norwegian subject pronoun meaning we.

It is used the same basic way as in English:

• Vi snakker = We speak / We are speaking
• Vi kommer = We come / We are coming

So in this sentence, vi is simply the subject: the people doing the action.

In Norwegian, verbs usually do not change form depending on the subject the way they do in English.

So:

• Jeg snakker = I speak / I am speaking
• Du snakker = You speak / You are speaking
• Vi snakker = We speak / We are speaking

The verb stays snakker for all these subjects.

This is much simpler than English, where you have forms like I am, he is, or she speaks.

Norwegian often uses the simple present where English can use either:

• simple present: we speak
• present continuous: we are speaking

So Vi snakker med presten can mean:

• We speak with the priest
• We are speaking with the priest

The exact meaning depends on context.

Norwegian does have ways to emphasize an ongoing action, but in ordinary speech the simple present is very common.

Med usually means with.

In the expression snakke med, it means speak with or talk to someone.

So:

• snakke med noen = speak with someone / talk to someone

This is a very common pattern in Norwegian.

Examples:

• Jeg snakker med læreren = I am talking to the teacher
• Hun snakker med vennene sine = She is talking with her friends

Because presten means the priest, while prest means a priest or just priest in a general sense.

In Norwegian, the definite article is often added to the end of the noun as a suffix.

So:

• en prest = a priest
• presten = the priest

That -en ending marks the noun as definite.

In Norwegian, the is often built into the noun itself instead of appearing as a separate word before it.

So English:

• the priest

becomes Norwegian:

• presten

This is completely normal in Norwegian.

Compare:

• en bil = a car

• bilen = the car

• en lærer = a teacher
• læreren = the teacher

So presten already includes the meaning of the priest.

Prest is a common gender noun in Norwegian, so its forms are:

• en prest = a priest
• presten = the priest

In Bokmål, common gender nouns typically take:

• en in the indefinite singular
• -en in the definite singular

This is something you often need to learn together with the noun:

• en prest
• en lærer
• en stol

Learning nouns with their article is very helpful.

It can match either one in English, depending on context.

Snakke med noen can mean:

• talk with someone
• talk to someone
• speak with someone

English makes small distinctions sometimes, but Norwegian often just uses snakke med for all of these.

So you should not worry too much about choosing between with and to when understanding this sentence.

Yes, but Norwegian has important word-order rules.

The normal order here is:

• Vi = subject
• snakker = verb
• med presten = prepositional phrase

So:

• Vi snakker med presten

If you move another element to the front, the verb usually stays in second position:

• Med presten snakker vi is possible in a very marked or poetic style, but not the normal way to say it.
• A more natural kind of fronting would be with a time word, such as I dag snakker vi med presten = Today we are talking to the priest

So for a basic sentence, Vi snakker med presten is the standard word order.

A rough pronunciation is:

PRES-ten

with the stress on the first syllable.

A very rough English-friendly guide:

• prest sounds a bit like prest in prestige, but shorter and cleaner
• -en is a short ending, something like en in taken, depending on accent

The exact pronunciation varies a little by dialect, but the main thing is:

• stress the first syllable
• keep the ending light

Yes. Prater is often used like talk in everyday speech.

So:

• Vi snakker med presten
• Vi prater med presten

Both are possible, though snakker is often a little more neutral and general.

In many contexts, they mean almost the same thing.