De seiler til byen.

In this sentence, De means they.

A native English speaker may notice that De can also be a polite or old-fashioned way to say you in Norwegian, but in everyday modern Norwegian, if you see De at the start of a simple sentence like this, it will usually mean they only in older or more formal spelling conventions. In modern standard Norwegian, they is normally written de, with a lowercase d unless it starts the sentence.

So here, because it is the first word of the sentence, it is capitalized: De = They.

Seiler is the present tense of the verb å seile, which means to sail.

So:

• å seile = to sail
• seiler = sail / are sailing

Norwegian present tense often ends in -r, so this is a very common pattern.

In context, De seiler can mean:

• They sail
• They are sailing

Norwegian often uses the simple present where English might use either the simple present or the present continuous.

It can mean either one, depending on context.

Norwegian does not usually distinguish as strongly as English between:

• They sail
• They are sailing

So De seiler could describe:

• a general activity: They sail
• something happening now: They are sailing

If the wider context makes it clear that the action is happening right now, English would often translate it as They are sailing.

Til means to in this sentence.

It shows movement toward a destination:

• til byen = to the city

This is a very common preposition in Norwegian when talking about going or moving somewhere.

Examples:

• Vi går til skolen. = We walk to school.
• Hun reiser til Norge. = She travels to Norway.

Because byen means the city, while by means city.

Norwegian usually adds the definite article to the end of the noun instead of putting a separate word in front like English does.

So:

• en by = a city
• byen = the city

This is one of the most important differences from English. Instead of saying the city, Norwegian often uses a noun ending.

Byen is made from:

• by = city
• -en = the definite ending for many masculine nouns

So:

• en by = a city
• byen = the city

Even though by ends in -y, the pattern is still the same: the definite form adds -en.

The word order is:

Subject + Verb + Prepositional phrase

So:

• De = subject
• seiler = verb
• til byen = prepositional phrase showing direction

This is the normal word order for a basic Norwegian main clause, and it looks very similar to English:

• They sail to the city.

A simple learner-friendly pronunciation guide would be something like:

deh SAY-ler til BY-en

A few helpful notes:

• De is usually pronounced like deh
• seiler sounds roughly like say-ler
• til is close to teel or a shorter til
• byen has two syllables: BY-en

The exact pronunciation can vary somewhat by dialect, but this approximation is good for a beginner.

Yes, but it means something slightly different.

• De seiler til byen = They sail to the city
• De drar til byen = They go to the city / They are going to the city

Seiler specifically tells you how they are traveling: by sailing, probably by boat.

Drar is more general and does not say anything specific about the method of travel.

Usually yes, but the exact English translation can depend on context.

Byen literally means the city, but in real usage it can sometimes mean:

• the city
• town
• downtown / into town

For example, in some contexts Vi drar til byen might be translated more naturally as We’re going into town, even though the Norwegian word is still byen.

So the literal meaning is the city, but the most natural English wording can vary.

Because in Norwegian, definiteness is often shown by adding an ending to the noun.

English says:

• the city

Norwegian says:

• byen

That -en ending already includes the meaning of the. So adding a separate article would usually be wrong in a simple sentence like this.

This is a core grammar pattern in Norwegian:

• en bil = a car
• bilen = the car
• en mann = a man
• mannen = the man

So byen works the same way.