Piken venter ved skolen.

In Norwegian, the definite article is usually attached to the end of the noun.

• pike = girl

• piken = the girl

• skole = school
• skolen = the school

So -en here means the.

This is different from English, where the is a separate word.

Because Norwegian often uses a suffix instead of a separate article.

English:

• the girl
• the school

Norwegian:

• piken
• skolen

This is one of the first big differences English speakers notice. Norwegian can also use a separate determiner in some contexts, but in a simple sentence like this, attaching -en to the noun is the normal pattern.

Venter is the present tense of å vente = to wait.

So:

• å vente = to wait
• venter = wait / is waiting / waits

In this sentence, venter means is waiting or waits, depending on the English translation style.

No. In Norwegian, verbs do not change for person the way they do in English.

For example:

• jeg venter = I am waiting
• du venter = you are waiting
• hun venter = she is waiting
• vi venter = we are waiting

The verb stays venter in all of these. That is much simpler than English verb agreement.

Ved usually means by, near, or at in the sense of location close to something.

So ved skolen means something like:

• by the school
• near the school
• at the school

It suggests the girl is located next to or close to the school, not necessarily inside it.

These prepositions give different meanings:

• ved skolen = by/near the school
• på skolen = at school / on the school premises
• i skolen = in the school, inside the school, or sometimes in the school system depending on context

So ved skolen focuses on physical proximity to the school.
If you said Piken venter på skolen, it would sound more like she is at school.
If you said Piken venter i skolen, it would suggest she is inside the school building.

This sentence has normal Norwegian main clause word order:

• Piken = subject
• venter = verb
• ved skolen = prepositional phrase telling where

So the structure is:

Subject + Verb + Place

This is very similar to basic English word order: The girl waits by the school.

It is correct, but in everyday speech many Norwegians would more often say jenta for the girl.

Compare:

• piken = the girl
• jenta = the girl

Both are correct, but jente/jenta is often more common in modern everyday Norwegian. Learners should recognize piken, though, because it appears in writing and teaching materials.

The base form is pike.

Here is the pattern:

• pike = a girl
• piken = the girl

So piken is the singular definite form of pike.

The base form is skole.

Pattern:

• skole = a school
• skolen = the school

Again, skolen is the singular definite form.

A rough English-friendly pronunciation is:

PEE-ken VEN-ter vehd SKOO-len

A few notes:

• piken: the first syllable is stressed
• venter: stress on VEN-
• ved: the e is more like the vowel in bed, but longer depending on dialect
• skolen: stress on SKO-

Exact pronunciation varies by dialect, but that approximation is a useful start.

Yes, this is standard Bokmål.

A Nynorsk version would typically be:

• Jenta ventar ved skulen

So if you are studying Bokmål, Piken venter ved skolen fits that system.