Politiet mottar trusselen.

The police receive the threat.

Breakdown of Politiet mottar trusselen.

• motta: to receive
• politiet: the police
• trusselen: the threat

Questions & Answers about Politiet mottar trusselen.

Why does politiet end in -et?

Because politiet is the definite form of politi.

In Norwegian, nouns often add an ending to mean the ...:

• et politi = a police force / police authority (rare as a countable noun in everyday use)
• politiet = the police

So here politiet means the police.

A useful thing to know is that politi is often treated as a collective institution, so politiet is very commonly used to mean the police in general.

Is politiet singular or plural?

Grammatically, it is usually treated as singular in Norwegian, even though in English the police often behaves like a plural expression.

So Norwegian says:

• Politiet mottar trusselen. = The police receive / is receiving the threat.

And you will often see singular agreement with politiet.

This is one of those places where Norwegian and English do not line up perfectly:

• English: The police are...
• Norwegian: Politiet er...

Why is there no separate word for the, like in English?