Riket har mange byer.

Because riket is the definite singular form of et rike.

• et rike = a kingdom / a realm
• riket = the kingdom / the realm

Norwegian often adds the definite article to the end of the noun instead of using a separate word like the in English.

So:

• et rike = a kingdom
• riket = the kingdom

Rike is a neuter noun in Norwegian.

Its basic form is:

• et rike

That et tells you it is neuter. Neuter nouns usually take:

• -et in the definite singular
• so et rike becomes riket

A useful pattern is:

• et hus → huset
• et eple → eplet
• et rike → riket

Yes, they are related historically, and that can confuse learners.

• rik = rich (adjective)
• et rike = a kingdom / realm / empire (noun)

So even though they look similar, they are used differently:

• Han er rik = He is rich
• Et stort rike = A large kingdom

In your sentence, riket is definitely the noun, not the adjective.

Har is the present tense of å ha, which means to have.

So:

• å ha = to have
• har = have / has

In this sentence, Riket har mange byer, the idea is that the kingdom has many cities.

This is a very normal way to express possession or inclusion in Norwegian.

No. In Norwegian, verbs usually do not change according to the subject in the present tense.

So you get:

• jeg har = I have
• du har = you have
• han har = he has
• vi har = we have
• de har = they have

That is much simpler than English, where you have both have and has.

Mange means many, and byer is the indefinite plural of by.

So:

• by = city / town
• byer = cities / towns

After mange, Norwegian normally uses an indefinite plural noun:

• mange byer = many cities
• mange hus = many houses
• mange mennesker = many people

That is why you do not use the singular form here.

The noun by forms its plural like this:

• en by = a city
• byen = the city
• byer = cities
• byene = the cities

So the plural ending here is -er.

This is a very common plural pattern in Norwegian, although not all nouns follow exactly the same pattern.

Because byer means cities in a general, indefinite sense, while byene means the cities, referring to specific ones.

Compare:

• Riket har mange byer = the kingdom has many cities
• Riket har mange av de største byene i landet = the kingdom has many of the largest cities in the country

In your sentence, the cities are not specifically identified, so byer is the right choice.

The sentence follows the normal Norwegian main clause order:

Subject + Verb + Object

So here:

• Riket = subject
• har = verb
• mange byer = object

This is very similar to basic English word order:

• The kingdom has many cities

Not in normal modern Norwegian prose. The standard word order is:

• Riket har mange byer

Norwegian is generally a verb-second language in main clauses, which means the finite verb usually comes early in the sentence. If another element comes first, the verb still usually stays in second position.

For example:

• I dag har riket mange byer = Today the kingdom has many cities

Here I dag comes first, and har is still the second element.

A careful approximate pronunciation is:

• Riket ≈ REE-keh
• har ≈ hahr
• mange ≈ MAHNG-eh
• byer ≈ BEE-er

A rough full pronunciation could be written as:

REE-keh hahr MAHNG-eh BEE-er

A few helpful notes:

• The r is usually a Norwegian r, not an English one.
• y in byer is a Norwegian vowel that does not exist exactly in English. It is not the same as English ee, but learners often start with something close to bee-er as an approximation.
• In normal speech, the sentence will flow more smoothly than these separated parts suggest.

That is a very good question. By can sometimes be translated as either city or town, depending on context.

In many learning materials, by is often introduced as city, but real usage can overlap with English town in some cases.

So:

• en by = a city / town
• mange byer = many cities / towns

If the meaning has already been given to you as cities, then that is the intended translation here, but it is useful to know that the word is not always a perfect one-to-one match with English city.

Yes. Depending on context, rike can mean:

• kingdom
• realm
• empire
• sometimes a more abstract domain

So riket can be translated in different ways depending on what kind of text you are reading.

For a simple sentence like this, the kingdom is often the most natural interpretation, but the realm may also fit in some contexts.