Vi må informere politiet.

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.

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)

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.

Yes. Å informere means to inform.

It is an infinitive ending in -ere, which is common for many Norwegian verbs, especially ones that may look familiar to English speakers.

Some forms are:

• infinitive: å informere
• present: informerer
• past: informerte
• past participle: informert

Example:

• Vi informerer politiet = We are informing / inform the police
• Vi informerte politiet = We informed the police

Because politiet is the definite form, meaning the police.

The noun is:

• et politi = a police force / police authority
• politiet = the police

In this sentence, Norwegian uses the definite form because it refers to the police as an institution or authority.

This can feel a little unusual to English speakers because English police looks plural, but in Norwegian politiet is treated as a singular neuter noun.

Here it means the police as an institution, not one individual officer.

If you want to talk about a police officer, you would usually say:

• en politimann = a policeman
• en politikvinne = a policewoman
• en politibetjent = a police officer

So Vi må informere politiet means We need to inform the police, not We need to inform a police officer specifically.

Yes. In Norwegian, informere can directly take the thing or person being informed.

So this is correct:

• informere politiet = inform the police

You may also see:

• informere om noe = inform about something
• informere noen om noe = inform someone about something

For example:

• Vi må informere politiet om saken = We must inform the police about the case.

The word order is:

• Vi = subject
• må = finite verb
• informere = infinitive/main verb
• politiet = object

So the pattern is:

Subject + finite verb + infinitive + object

This is a very common structure in Norwegian when using a modal verb.

You usually put ikke after the finite verb:

• Vi må ikke informere politiet

This can mean We must not inform the police.

Be careful: in some contexts, må ikke can sound like a prohibition (must not), while in others learners may expect do not have to. If you specifically mean do not need to, Norwegian often uses:

• Vi trenger ikke informere politiet = We do not need to inform the police

So må ikke and trenger ikke are not always the same.

In a yes/no question, Norwegian usually puts the finite verb before the subject:

• Må vi informere politiet?

That means Do we have to inform the police? or Must we inform the police?

This is a very common Norwegian pattern:

• statement: Vi må informere politiet
• question: Må vi informere politiet?

The letter å is a separate letter in the Norwegian alphabet, not just a with a mark on it.

In må, it is pronounced roughly like the vowel in British English more, though not exactly the same.

So:

• må is one syllable
• the å sound is important
• ma would be a different spelling and not the same word

This letter appears in many common Norwegian words, such as:

• på
• gå
• få

It is completely neutral and natural. You could use it in everyday speech, news, official contexts, or writing.

Nothing in the sentence is especially slangy or especially formal. It is a straightforward standard Norwegian sentence.