Han er ikke egoistisk.

In a normal Norwegian main clause, ikke usually comes after the finite verb.

So:

• Han er ikke egoistisk. = correct
• Han ikke er egoistisk. = not normal in standard Norwegian

This is a very common word-order pattern:

• Jeg kommer ikke.
• Hun snakker ikke norsk.
• Vi er ikke klare.

So in this sentence, er is the finite verb, and ikke follows it.

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

So:

• å være = to be
• er = am / is / are

Examples:

• Jeg er trøtt. = I am tired.
• Hun er snill. = She is kind.
• Han er ikke egoistisk. = He is not selfish.

Because egoistisk is an adjective, not a noun.

In Han er ikke egoistisk, the structure is:

• Han = subject
• er = verb
• ikke = negation
• egoistisk = adjective describing han

In English, you also say He is not selfish, not He is not a selfish.

If you wanted a noun instead, Norwegian would use a different structure, for example:

• Han er ingen egoist. = He is not an egoist / He is no egoist.

So:

• egoistisk = selfish (adjective)
• egoist = egoist, selfish person (noun)

Yes, adjectives in Norwegian can change form depending on gender, number, and whether they are used with a noun or after a verb.

In this sentence, egoistisk is used after er, so it is a predicative adjective.

Examples:

• Han er egoistisk.
• Hun er egoistisk.
• Barnet er egoistisk.
• De er egoistiske.

Notice that the singular forms stay egoistisk, but the plural becomes egoistiske.

With nouns:

• en egoistisk mann
• ei egoistisk jente
• et egoistisk barn
• egoistiske mennesker

So yes, it can change, but in this sentence the form egoistisk is the correct singular form.

Yes, and it is slightly different in structure.

• Han er ikke egoistisk = He is not selfish.
• Han er ingen egoist = He is not an egoist / He is no egoist.

The first sentence uses an adjective and talks about his character or behavior more generally.

The second uses a noun and can sound a little stronger or more categorical.

Both are correct, but they are not exactly the same grammatical pattern.

A rough pronunciation guide for an English speaker:

• ikke ≈ IK-keh
• egoistisk ≈ eh-go-IS-tisk

A rough full-sentence guide:

• Han er ikke egoistisk ≈ hahn air IK-keh eh-go-IS-tisk

A few notes:

• r in er is usually lighter than in many English accents.
• ikke has a clear first syllable stress.
• egoistisk is stressed near -ist-.

Pronunciation varies by dialect, but this is a helpful starting point.

This is standard Bokmål.

In Nynorsk, you would normally write:

• Han er ikkje egoistisk.

So the main difference here is:

• ikke = Bokmål
• ikkje = Nynorsk

Everything else in the sentence can stay the same.

In a yes/no question, Norwegian usually puts the verb before the subject.

So:

• Statement: Han er ikke egoistisk.
• Question: Er han ikke egoistisk?

That means:

• Isn’t he selfish? or Is he not selfish?

This verb-before-subject pattern is very common in Norwegian questions:

• Hun kommer. → Kommer hun?
• De er klare. → Er de klare?

So for questions, er moves in front of han.

No, normally Norwegian requires the subject pronoun in a sentence like this.

So you say:

• Han er ikke egoistisk.

Not:

• Er ikke egoistisk. unless something has already been omitted in very informal speech or in special contexts

Norwegian usually keeps subject pronouns where English might sometimes be more flexible in fragments. In a full sentence, han needs to be there.