Videregående skole begynner i august.

Videregående skole is the Norwegian term for upper secondary school—the stage after compulsory lower secondary school. In everyday English, learners often think of it as high school, although the school systems are not identical.

• videregående = literally something like continuing / further-going
• skole = school

Together, the phrase refers to the upper-secondary level of education.

Because videregående is functioning like an adjective and skole is the noun.

So the structure is:

• videregående = describes the school
• skole = the main noun

This is similar to English secondary school or public school, where two words together make one idea.

In this sentence, videregående skole is being used in a general sense, not to mean one specific school building.

So:

• Videregående skole begynner i august. = Upper secondary school starts in August.
• En videregående skole = a high school
• Den videregående skolen = the high school / that specific upper secondary school

Norwegian often leaves out the article when talking about an institution or school level in a general way.

Begynner is the present tense of the verb begynne (to begin / to start).

• å begynne = to begin
• begynner = begins / is beginning

In Norwegian, the present tense is much simpler than in English because the verb does not change depending on the subject:

• jeg begynner
• du begynner
• han/hun begynner
• vi begynner

They all use begynner.

Norwegian uses i with months, just like English often uses in.

So:

• i august = in August
• i september = in September
• i vinter = in winter

That is the normal preposition for months.

In Norwegian, months are normally not capitalized.

So you write:

• januar
• februar
• august

This is different from English, where month names are capitalized. The only time august would be capitalized in Norwegian is if it comes at the beginning of a sentence.

This is standard Norwegian main-clause word order:

• Videregående skole = subject
• begynner = verb
• i august = time expression

So the pattern is:

Subject + Verb + Time phrase

Norwegian is a V2 language, which means the finite verb normally comes in the second position in a main clause.

That becomes especially clear if another element comes first:

• I august begynner videregående skole.

That is also grammatical because begynner still stays in second position.

Yes, skole is grammatically singular. But the phrase is being used in a broad, general sense, so it does not necessarily mean one single school building.

It refers more to the school level / the school year / the institution of upper secondary school in general.

So even though the noun is singular, the meaning can still be general.

A rough English-friendly approximation is:

• videregående ≈ VEE-deh-reh-GOH-en-neh
• skole ≈ SKOO-leh

A few helpful notes:

• g in gående is pronounced
• the final -e in skole is sounded, not silent
• Norwegian pitch and vowel length matter, so an exact pronunciation is best learned by listening to native audio

If you want a very rough whole-phrase approximation: VEE-deh-reh-GOH-en-neh SKOO-leh

Yes, that is a natural translation in many learning contexts. However, high school is not always a perfect one-to-one match with videregående skole, because school systems differ from country to country.

So:

• high school = a useful everyday translation
• upper secondary school = a more precise translation

Both can be acceptable depending on context.

Yes, but the exact wording depends on context.

Videregående skole begynner i august is understandable and natural as a general statement about when that school level starts.

In conversation, people might also say things like:

• Videregående begynner i august.
• Skolen begynner i august.

Dropping skole after videregående is common when the meaning is already clear.