Politiet finner gjerningsmannen.

The police find the perpetrator.

Breakdown of Politiet finner gjerningsmannen.

• finne: to find
• politiet: the police
• gjerningsmannen: the perpetrator

Questions & Answers about Politiet finner gjerningsmannen.

Why is politiet used for the police? It looks singular.

Politiet is the definite form of politi, and in Norwegian it commonly refers to the police as a collective body.

That is different from English, where the police is grammatically plural. In Norwegian, politiet is often treated as a single institution or unit.

Also, Norwegian present-tense verbs do not change for singular and plural, so finner would look the same either way.

Why is there no separate word for the in this sentence?

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

So here you have:

• politi → politiet = the police
• gjerningsmann → gjerningsmannen = the perpetrator

This is one of the biggest differences from English. Norwegian often builds the into the noun itself.

What form is finner?

Finner is the present tense of the verb å finne, which means to find.

So:

• å finne = to find
• finner = find / finds / is finding, depending on context

In simple sentences like this, it is usually understood as finds.

How do I know that politiet is doing the action and gjerningsmannen is receiving it?