Foreldrepengene og engangsstønaden gir penger.

In Norwegian, the definite article is usually attached to the end of the noun instead of being a separate word.

So:

• stønad = grant / benefit
• stønaden = the grant / the benefit

And similarly:

• foreldrepenger = parental benefit / parental money
• foreldrepengene = the parental benefit / the parental money

This is one of the biggest differences from English. English says the before the noun; Norwegian often adds the definiteness to the noun itself.

The ending -ne is a common definite plural ending in Norwegian.

A learner might expect this pattern:

• en bil = a car
• biler = cars
• bilene = the cars

So -ne often signals the ...s.

With foreldrepengene, this is a little tricky, because foreldrepenger is a word that is normally used in a plural form, much like some money-related words in English can behave in special ways. In practice, you should learn foreldrepenger as a fixed vocabulary item meaning a type of parental benefit/payment, and foreldrepengene as its definite form.

So yes, the -ne points to a definite plural form.

The ending -en is the usual definite singular ending for many masculine nouns.

For example:

• en gutt = a boy
• gutten = the boy

Likewise:

• en engangsstønad = a one-time grant
• engangsstønaden = the one-time grant

So -en here means the noun is singular and definite.

Norwegian verbs do not change according to the subject the way English verbs sometimes do.

In English:

• I give
• he gives
• they give

In Norwegian, the verb stays the same:

• jeg gir
• han gir
• de gir

So even though the subject here is made up of two things — Foreldrepengene og engangsstønaden — the verb is still just gir.

Because the sentence is talking about money in a general sense, not the money specifically.

Compare:

• gir penger = gives money
• gir pengene = gives the money

This works a lot like English. If you mean money in general, you do not make it definite. If you mean a specific amount already known in the conversation, you would use the definite form.

Og means and.

It connects the two subject nouns:

• Foreldrepengene
• engangsstønaden

Together they form a compound subject:

Foreldrepengene og engangsstønaden = the parental benefit and the one-time grant

Then the rest of the sentence is:

• gir = give
• penger = money

So the sentence structure is:

Subject + verb + object

Grammatically, it is treated as a plural-form noun. The word literally contains penger, which is money in a plural form.

But as a vocabulary item, foreldrepenger refers to one type of benefit: parental benefit/pay. So learners often find it confusing because the meaning feels singular, while the form looks plural.

The safest approach is:

• learn foreldrepenger as the standard dictionary form of the benefit
• learn foreldrepengene as the definite form used when talking about that specific benefit

So it is best not to over-translate it word by word.

This sentence is a basic Norwegian main clause with normal word order:

Subject + verb + object

• Foreldrepengene og engangsstønaden = subject
• gir = verb
• penger = object

This is the same basic order as in English:

The parental benefit and the one-time grant give money.

Norwegian does have special word order rules, especially the verb-second rule, but in a simple statement like this, the sentence looks very straightforward.

Yes, but it would change the meaning.

• Foreldrepengene og engangsstønaden = the parental benefit and the one-time grant
• Foreldrepenger og engangsstønad = parental benefit and one-time grant more generally

The version with endings is definite and points to specific, known benefits. The version without them is more general or dictionary-like.

So the endings matter because they tell you whether the nouns are definite.

It is grammatically understandable, but depending on context, a native speaker might choose a more natural phrasing such as one that makes it clearer that these are financial support schemes.

Still, for a learner, this sentence is useful because it clearly shows:

• definite noun endings
• a compound subject with og
• the verb gir
• the object penger

So even if it may sound a bit simplified or instructional, it is a good sentence for studying basic Norwegian grammar.