Andelseieren spør om fellesgjelden.

Because Norwegian very often forms nouns as compounds written as a single word.

Here, andelseieren is built from:

• andel = share, stake
• eier = owner
• -en = the definite ending for a masculine noun

So andelseieren literally breaks down as share-owner-the, which corresponds to the co-op owner / the shareholder in English.

In housing contexts, andelseier often refers to someone who owns a share in a housing cooperative.

The ending -en is the definite article attached to the noun.

In Norwegian, instead of usually putting the before the noun, you often add a suffix to the end:

• andelseier = a co-op owner / shareholder
• andelseieren = the co-op owner / the shareholder

So the definiteness is built into the noun itself.

Because Norwegian usually marks definiteness by adding an ending to the noun rather than using a separate article.

Examples:

• en eier = an owner
• eieren = the owner
• en gjeld is not normally how this noun is used in practice, but
• gjelden = the debt

So in andelseieren and fellesgjelden, the idea of the is already included in the endings -en.

Spør is the present tense of the verb å spørre = to ask.

Examples:

• å spørre = to ask
• spør = ask/asks
• spurte = asked
• har spurt = have/has asked

So:

• Andelseieren spør om fellesgjelden. = The co-op owner asks about the shared debt.

Because spør om means ask about.

That little word om is important here. Compare:

• spør noen = ask someone
• spør om noe = ask about something / ask for something, depending on context

Examples:

• Hun spør læreren. = She asks the teacher.
• Hun spør om leksene. = She asks about the homework.

In your sentence, the person is asking about the shared debt, so om is the natural choice.

Yes. Spør om can mean either ask about or ask for, depending on context.

Examples:

• Han spør om fellesgjelden. = He asks about the shared debt.
• Han spør om hjelp. = He asks for help.

In your sentence, fellesgjelden is information or a topic, so the meaning is clearly ask about.

It is another compound noun:

• felles = shared, common
• gjeld = debt
• -en = the definite ending

So fellesgjelden means the shared debt or the common debt.

In Norwegian housing/co-op contexts, this often refers to debt that is shared collectively by the owners in the building or housing association.

Because it usually refers to a specific shared debt, not just shared debt in general.

Compare:

• fellesgjeld = shared debt, common debt
• fellesgjelden = the shared debt

In this sentence, the speaker is asking about a particular debt that both speaker and listener can identify, so the definite form is natural.

No, this is standard Norwegian main clause word order:

• Andelseieren = subject
• spør = verb
• om fellesgjelden = prepositional phrase

So it follows the normal pattern:

Subject + verb + rest

This is very similar to ordinary English word order in a simple statement.

Grammatically, those forms can exist, but the sentence would usually sound less natural in ordinary context.

• andelseier without -en means a co-op owner
• fellesgjeld without -en means shared debt in a more general sense

So:

• Andelseieren spør om fellesgjelden. = The co-op owner asks about the shared debt.
• En andelseier spør om fellesgjeld. = A co-op owner asks about shared debt.

The original sentence sounds like it refers to a specific person and a specific debt.

A rough guide for an English speaker:

• spør sounds somewhat like spur or spurr, but with the Norwegian vowel ø, which does not exist exactly in English.

A few notes:

• sp is pronounced like English sp
• ø is a rounded front vowel; you may know a similar sound from some French or German pronunciation
• the final r is pronounced, though how it sounds depends on dialect

If you cannot produce ø perfectly yet, that is very normal for learners.

This word can be tricky.

A rough learner-friendly guide:

• gj often sounds somewhat like a y sound for many learners
• e is short
• ld at the end may sound more compact than an English speaker expects

So gjeld is roughly like yeld, but that is only an approximation.

The exact pronunciation varies a bit by dialect, but the important thing is recognizing that gj does not sound like a hard English g.

It often has a special housing/co-op meaning.

Both andelseier and fellesgjeld are very common in discussions of Norwegian housing cooperatives:

• andelseier = a person who owns a share in a housing co-op
• fellesgjeld = the debt shared by the co-op or building and indirectly carried by residents

So even though the grammar is general Norwegian, the vocabulary strongly suggests a housing-related context.