På førstehjelpskurset viser instruktøren sideleiet.

This is a very common Norwegian sentence pattern. Norwegian often puts a time or place expression first if that is the setting the speaker wants to highlight.

Here, På førstehjelpskurset means something like at the first-aid course / during the first-aid course.

When a non-subject comes first in a main clause, Norwegian uses verb-second word order. That is why the verb viser comes before the subject instruktøren:

• På førstehjelpskurset viser instruktøren sideleiet.

If you started with the subject instead, you would get:

• Instruktøren viser sideleiet på førstehjelpskurset.

Both are correct, but the original version emphasizes the course setting first.

This is because of the V2 rule in Norwegian main clauses. The finite verb usually comes in the second position.

So when the sentence begins with På førstehjelpskurset, that first element takes the first position, and the verb must come next:

• 1st position: På førstehjelpskurset
• 2nd position: viser
• then the subject: instruktøren

This is one of the most important word-order rules in Norwegian.

Compare:

• Instruktøren viser sideleiet.
• På førstehjelpskurset viser instruktøren sideleiet.

Because Norwegian forms compound nouns very freely, much more than English does.

førstehjelpskurset is made up of:

• førstehjelp = first aid
• kurs = course
• -et = the definite ending

So the structure is:

• førstehjelpskurs = first-aid course
• førstehjelpskurset = the first-aid course

English often writes these as separate words, but Norwegian usually joins them into one word.

With kurs, Norwegian usually uses på, not i, when talking about being at or attending a course.

So you commonly say:

• på kurs = on a course / at a course
• på norskkurs = at a Norwegian course
• på førstehjelpskurs = at a first-aid course

This is something you mostly have to learn as a usage pattern. Even though English might suggest in the course, Norwegian normally prefers på here.

The ending -en marks the noun as definite singular for many masculine nouns.

• en instruktør = an instructor
• instruktøren = the instructor

So instead of using a separate word for the as English does, Norwegian often adds the definite ending directly to the noun.

Because Norwegian usually expresses definiteness by attaching it to the noun itself.

So:

• en instruktør = an instructor
• instruktøren = the instructor

and

• et sideleie = a recovery position / side-lying position
• sideleiet = the recovery position

A separate definite word like den/det/de is mainly used when there is an adjective or some other special structure:

• det riktige sideleiet = the correct recovery position

But without an adjective, the ending alone is usually enough.

Sideleie is a neuter noun:

• et sideleie = a recovery position
• sideleiet = the recovery position

For many neuter nouns, the definite singular ending is -et.

So sideleiet is simply the definite singular form.

Using the definite form suggests a specific, known procedure or position. In this context, sideleiet refers to the recovery position as a standard first-aid technique.

That is very natural in Norwegian when talking about established procedures, concepts, or named positions.

If you said viser sideleie, it would sound less natural here and more incomplete, because it would be like saying shows recovery position rather than shows the recovery position.

Viser is the present tense of å vise.

• å vise = to show
• viser = shows / is showing

In Norwegian, the present tense is often used where English might use either:

• shows
• is showing

depending on context.

So viser can describe a general situation, a current action, or something happening as part of a routine or demonstration.

Yes. In this sentence, viser can very naturally be understood as demonstrates.

In practical teaching situations, å vise often means to show how something is done, not just to point at it.

So in a first-aid context, instruktøren viser sideleiet is likely describing an actual demonstration of the recovery position.

Yes, absolutely. That version is grammatical and natural.

The difference is mostly about emphasis and information flow:

• På førstehjelpskurset viser instruktøren sideleiet.
  Focuses first on the setting: at the first-aid course

• Instruktøren viser sideleiet på førstehjelpskurset.
  Starts more neutrally with the instructor

Both are correct.

Yes. -et shows that it is the first-aid course, not just a first-aid course.

Compare:

• på et førstehjelpskurs = at a first-aid course
• på førstehjelpskurset = at the first-aid course

So the sentence is talking about a particular course that is known from the context.

Yes, very much so. The structure is very natural in Norwegian:

• setting first
• verb in second position
• subject after the verb
• definite nouns for known people/things

You will see similar sentences often, for example:

• På skolen lærer elevene grammatikk.
• I timen forklarer læreren oppgaven.
• På kurset gjennomgår instruktøren sikkerhetsreglene.

So this sentence is a good example of normal, idiomatic Norwegian grammar.