Den militære bilen er stor.

This is because Norwegian normally uses double definiteness when a definite noun has an adjective before it.

• bil = car
• bilen = the car
• den militære bilen = the military car

So when you add an adjective like militære, you usually need both:

• a definite article: den
• the noun in its definite form: bilen

This is very different from English, where you only use the once.

Because adjectives usually take the ending -e when they come before a definite noun.

Compare:

• en militær bil = a military car
• den militære bilen = the military car

So:

• militær = basic form
• militære = form used before a definite noun

This is a very common pattern in Norwegian adjectives.

Because stor is a predicative adjective here, meaning it comes after the verb er.

In Norwegian, adjectives after to be usually agree only with gender and number, not with definiteness in the same way as adjectives before nouns.

Here, bil is a common gender singular noun, so the adjective stays in the basic form:

• bilen er stor = the car is big

Compare:

• huset er stort = the house is big
  because hus is neuter
• bilene er store = the cars are big
  because plural takes -e

So stor is correct because bil is singular and common gender.

Because bil is a common gender noun in Norwegian.

• en bil = a car
• bilen = the car

Common gender nouns use den in this kind of phrase:

• den militære bilen

If the noun were neuter, you would use det instead:

• et hus = a house
• det store huset = the big house

So the article depends on the noun’s gender.

The word order is:

• Den militære bilen = subject
• er = verb
• stor = adjective describing the subject

So the sentence follows a basic pattern:

Subject + verb + complement

This is similar to English:

• The military car is big

It is a very normal and straightforward Norwegian sentence.

Here, militære is an adjective describing the noun bilen.

It tells you what kind of car it is:

• en rask bil = a fast car
• en rød bil = a red car
• en militær bil = a military car

In the sentence Den militære bilen er stor, the adjective is just in the form used before a definite noun.

No, that would not be standard Norwegian.

When an adjective comes before a definite noun, you normally need the -e form:

• correct: den militære bilen
• incorrect: den militær bilen

So both parts matter:

• den for definiteness
• militære as the definite adjective form

The ending -en here shows that the noun is singular definite.

• bil = car
• bilen = the car
• biler = cars
• bilene = the cars

So bilen means one specific car, not several.

The letter æ is a separate vowel in Norwegian. For many English speakers, it sounds somewhat like the vowel in cat, though the exact sound can vary by dialect.

So militære contains that æ sound near the end.

A rough learner-friendly pronunciation guide might be something like:

• mee-lee-TAI-reh or mee-lee-TEH-reh

But exact pronunciation depends on dialect, and spelling is the most important thing to notice at first: æ is its own letter, not just a variation of a.

Yes, but that changes the meaning slightly.

• Bilen er stor = The car is big
• Den militære bilen er stor = The military car is big

Without den militære, you lose the descriptive part military.
So bilen er stor is a simpler sentence, while den militære bilen er stor identifies a more specific car.

This sentence is standard Bokmål.

In Nynorsk, you would more likely see:

• Den militære bilen er stor

This particular sentence can actually look the same in both written standards, so context is needed to tell for sure. But for most learners, it is perfectly fine to treat it as normal Bokmål Norwegian.