Obersten snakker med politiet.

Because obersten is the definite singular form of oberst.

• en oberst = a colonel
• obersten = the colonel

In this sentence, the speaker means a specific colonel, so Norwegian uses the definite form attached to the noun.

Snakker is the present tense of å snakke, which means to speak or to talk.

So:

• å snakke = to speak / to talk
• snakker = speaks / is speaking / talks

In English, the best translation depends on context. Norwegian present tense often covers both:

• The colonel talks with the police
• The colonel is talking with the police

Med means with, and the expression snakke med means talk to / speak with someone.

So:

• snakker med politiet = talks to the police or is speaking with the police

This is a very common pattern in Norwegian.

Sometimes, but it means something a little different.

• snakke med = to have communication with someone, often more like a conversation
• snakke til = to speak to someone more one-directionally, like addressing them

So in most everyday cases where two sides are in contact, snakke med is the natural choice.

Because politiet is the definite form of politi.

• et politi = a police force (less common by itself in everyday use)
• politiet = the police

In Norwegian, politiet is very commonly used to mean the police as an institution or collective group.

The ending -et shows that this noun is neuter and definite singular.

This is a very common learner question. In Norwegian, politiet is usually treated as a singular collective noun, while English the police is grammatically plural.

So Norwegian says:

• Politiet kommer. = The police are coming.

Even though English uses a plural verb, Norwegian uses the singular noun politiet.

The basic word order is:

Subject + Verb + Prepositional phrase

• Obersten = subject
• snakker = verb
• med politiet = prepositional phrase

So the sentence structure is very straightforward.

Also remember that Norwegian main clauses follow the V2 rule, which means the finite verb usually comes in the second position:

• Obersten snakker med politiet.
• I dag snakker obersten med politiet.

In both cases, the verb snakker stays in second position.

It can mean either one, depending on context.

Norwegian present tense often covers both:

• a habitual action: The colonel talks with the police
• an action happening now: The colonel is talking with the police

If you want to make right now clearer, Norwegian can also use:

• Obersten sitter og snakker med politiet.
• Obersten holder på å snakke med politiet.

But the original sentence is completely normal.

A helpful approximate pronunciation is:

OH-ber-sten

A few notes:

• o is a clear vowel, not like the English ow
• r is Norwegian, so it may sound different depending on dialect
• -en at the end is the definite ending

The stress is usually on the first syllable: OBERsten.

A rough guide is:

po-lee-tee-eh

The final part is not usually pronounced like English it. It has separate vowel sounds.

You can think of it as:

• po
• li
• ti
• et

Spoken Norwegian may smooth this out a bit, but that breakdown helps learners.

Because in Norwegian, common nouns are not capitalized.

Only things like:

• the first word in a sentence
• proper names
• places
• people

get capitals.

So:

• obersten = not capitalized
• politiet = not capitalized

This is different from German, where all nouns are capitalized.

In this sentence, obersten normally means the colonel, the military rank.

That is the standard meaning of oberst in Norwegian.

In some contexts, words for ranks or titles can be used almost like labels for a person, but the basic meaning here is definitely the colonel.

Yes, it is a perfectly natural and grammatical Norwegian sentence.

It is simple, clear, and idiomatic:

• Obersten = the colonel
• snakker med = talks with / is speaking to
• politiet = the police

So it works well as a normal everyday statement in Norwegian.