Overflaten er våt.

Because Norwegian usually puts the definite article on the end of the noun.

• en overflate = a surface
• overflaten = the surface

So unlike English, Norwegian normally does not use a separate word like the here.

In Bokmål, overflate can be treated as either:

• en overflate → overflaten
• ei overflate → overflata

So Overflaten er våt is a perfectly normal Bokmål sentence. You may also see Overflata er våt, especially in more feminine-style Bokmål or in Nynorsk-like usage.

Er is the present tense of å være, meaning to be.

It corresponds to English am / is / are, but Norwegian uses the same present-tense form for all persons:

• jeg er = I am
• du er = you are
• han er = he is
• vi er = we are

So overflaten er våt follows the normal pattern: subject + verb + adjective.

Because overflaten is a singular common-gender noun, and the adjective agrees with it.

With våt:

• common gender singular: våt
• neuter singular: vått
• plural: våte

Examples:

• Overflaten er våt.
• Gulvet er vått.
• Klærne er våte.

So here våt is the correct form.

Yes. In Norwegian, adjectives often agree with the noun even when they come after a verb like er.

That means this is not just true before nouns, but also in sentences like this one:

• En vegg er våt.
• Et gulv er vått.
• To vegger er våte.

So the adjective changes form based on gender and number, even in predicate position.

Then the structure changes. You would usually say:

• den våte overflaten = the wet surface

Notice two things:

1. You add den
2. The adjective becomes våte

So:

• Overflaten er våt = the surface is wet
• den våte overflaten = the wet surface

This is a very common pattern in Norwegian.

This is the normal word order for a simple statement:

• Overflaten = subject
• er = verb
• våt = complement/adjective

Norwegian main clauses usually follow the verb-second rule, and this sentence fits that pattern naturally.

If you turn it into a yes/no question, the verb comes first:

• Er overflaten våt? = Is the surface wet?

Våt is pronounced approximately /voːt/.

A few helpful points:

• å is a long vowel sound, somewhat like the vowel in British English law, but not exactly the same.
• The word is one syllable.
• The t is pronounced.

So våt sounds roughly like voht.

It is most naturally read as Bokmål, especially because of overflaten.

A Nynorsk-style version would more likely be:

• Overflata er våt.

However, the rest of the sentence is very similar across both written standards, and er and våt are the same here.