Politiet finner terroristen.

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

So:

• politi = police
• politiet = the police

This is one of the biggest differences from English. English says the police, but Norwegian often builds the into the noun itself.

For the same reason: -en is the usual definite ending for many common-gender nouns.

So:

• en terrorist = a terrorist
• terroristen = the terrorist

In this sentence, the speaker is talking about a specific terrorist, so the definite form is used.

Grammatically, politiet is treated as singular in Norwegian, even though in English the police often behaves like a plural idea.

That is why the verb is singular-looking:

• Politiet finner terroristen.

A useful way to think about it is that Norwegian treats politiet more like the police force or the police department.

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

In English:

• I find
• he finds
• they find

In Norwegian, the present tense stays the same:

• jeg finner
• han finner
• de finner

So finner is simply the present tense of finne, and it works with all subjects.

The infinitive is finne, which means to find.

A few useful forms are:

• å finne = to find
• finner = find / finds
• fant = found
• har funnet = have/has found

So in the sentence, finner is the present tense form.

Here it is basically the same as English: subject + verb + object.

• Politiet = subject
• finner = verb
• terroristen = object

So the sentence follows a very straightforward pattern.

However, Norwegian has an important rule in main clauses called V2 word order, where the finite verb usually comes second. In this simple sentence, that happens naturally anyway.

Yes, but it would mean something different.

• Politiet finner terroristen = The police find the terrorist
  A specific terrorist is meant.

• Politiet finner en terrorist = The police find a terrorist
  It could be any terrorist, not one already identified.

So the difference is the same basic definite vs. indefinite contrast that English has, but Norwegian marks it partly with endings on the noun.

Because Norwegian usually expresses definiteness with a suffix attached to the noun.

Compare:

• en terrorist = a terrorist

• terroristen = the terrorist

• et hus = a house
• huset = the house

So instead of putting the before the noun, Norwegian often adds a definite ending such as -en, -et, or -a.

A rough English-friendly guide would be:

po-li-TI-et FIN-ner ტერ-ror-IS-ten

More naturally broken down:

• Politiet: the stress is mainly on -ti-
• finner: short i, roughly FIN-ner
• terroristen: main stress on -rist-

If you want to sound more natural, it helps to keep the unstressed endings light and quick: politiet finner terroristen

Yes, in many contexts Norwegian present tense can cover both ideas.

So finner can mean:

• finds
• is finding

Which meaning is intended depends on context. In a simple sentence like this, English usually translates it as finds, but Norwegian itself does not force that distinction the way English often does.