Det tar et kvarter.

In Det tar et kvarter, det is a dummy subject, similar to English it in It takes fifteen minutes.

It does not refer to a specific thing here. Norwegian often uses det in general statements about time, weather, or situations.

So:

• Det tar et kvarter. = It takes a quarter of an hour.

You often see the same pattern in other sentences too:

• Det regner. = It is raining.
• Det er sent. = It is late.

Yes. Tar is the present tense of ta, which often means take.

In this sentence, tar is used in the time-expression sense:

• Det tar fem minutter. = It takes five minutes.
• Det tar lang tid. = It takes a long time.

So this is a very common and useful use of ta.

Because kvarter is a neuter noun in Norwegian, so it takes the article et in the indefinite singular.

Norwegian nouns have grammatical gender, and in Bokmål the main indefinite articles are:

• en for many masculine/feminine nouns
• et for neuter nouns

So:

• et kvarter = a quarter (of an hour)

This is something you simply have to learn with the noun.

Here, kvarter means a quarter of an hour, that is, 15 minutes.

So et kvarter is a fixed and very common time expression.

Examples:

• Vent et kvarter. = Wait a quarter of an hour / wait 15 minutes.
• Møtet varer et kvarter. = The meeting lasts 15 minutes.

Be aware that kvart over and kvart på are used when telling the clock time:

• kvart over tre = quarter past three
• kvart på fire = quarter to four

That is related, but not the same structure as et kvarter.

Because after ta when talking about duration, Norwegian usually puts the time expression directly after the verb.

So the pattern is:

• Det tar + time expression

Examples:

• Det tar en time. = It takes an hour.
• Det tar to dager. = It takes two days.
• Det tar et kvarter. = It takes fifteen minutes.

English learners sometimes expect an extra preposition, but Norwegian does not need one here.

Yes, absolutely. It is a perfectly natural complete sentence.

It works when the context already makes clear what is taking that amount of time. For example, if people are talking about a journey, a task, or cooking something, just saying Det tar et kvarter is enough.

If you want to be more specific, you can add more information:

• Det tar et kvarter å gå dit. = It takes a quarter of an hour to walk there.
• Det tar et kvarter med buss. = It takes fifteen minutes by bus.

Normally in standard Bokmål, you would write et kvarter, not ett kvarter.

The article for the neuter noun is et. The form ett is mainly the number one, and in ordinary writing it is usually not used where the indefinite article is needed.

So the normal form is:

• Det tar et kvarter.

Yes, very common. It is a basic everyday way to talk about duration.

You can use the same structure in many situations:

• travel time
• how long a job takes
• cooking time
• waiting time

For example:

• Det tar ti minutter.
• Det tar en halvtime.
• Det tar to timer.

So Det tar et kvarter is a very useful model sentence to learn.

The past tense of ta is tok.

So:

• Det tok et kvarter. = It took a quarter of an hour.

And in the present perfect:

• Det har tatt et kvarter. = It has taken a quarter of an hour.

This is a good pattern to remember:

• Det tar ... = present
• Det tok ... = past
• Det har tatt ... = present perfect

Yes. In Bokmål, both kvarter and kvartér may be seen, but kvarter is the common everyday spelling for this meaning.

Many learners also notice that some speakers use forms closer to Danish-influenced pronunciation or regional speech patterns, but for learning purposes, kvarter is the normal word to know.

If pronunciation matters in your course or dialect, it is best to check how your teacher or audio materials say it, since Norwegian pronunciation can vary quite a bit by region.