Vi må informere politiet.

we

Breakdown of Vi må informere politiet.

• må: must
• politiet: the police
• informere: to inform

Questions & Answers about Vi må informere politiet.

Why is it Vi and not vi?

Because Vi is capitalized at the beginning of the sentence. In Norwegian, nouns are not capitalized just because they are nouns, so only the first word and proper names normally get a capital letter.

Here, vi means we.

What does må mean here?

Må is the present tense of å måtte, which means must, have to, or need to depending on context.

So Vi må informere politiet means that informing the police is necessary or required.

A few related forms:

• må = must / have to
• måtte = had to / must (past form, depending on context)

Why is there no å before informere?

Because må is a modal verb, and in Norwegian modal verbs are followed by the bare infinitive.

So you say:

• Vi må informere politiet
• Jeg kan hjelpe
• Hun vil dra

Not:

• Vi må å informere politiet ❌

This is similar to English, where we say we must inform, not we must to inform.

Is informere a normal verb, and what kind of verb is it?