Politiet finner giften.

In Norwegian, the is usually not a separate word. Instead, definiteness is often added to the end of the noun.

So here:

• politiet = the police
• giften = the poison

The endings -et and -en are what make the nouns definite.

Politi is the basic noun, while politiet is the definite form, meaning the police.

So:

• politi = police / a police force (depending on context)
• politiet = the police

In this sentence, the speaker is talking about a specific police force or the police as a known group, so politiet is used.

It is grammatically treated as a singular definite noun, but it often refers to the police collectively.

That is a little similar to English, where the police refers to a group rather than one person. If you want to refer to one police officer, you would normally use a different noun, such as en politibetjent.

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

So:

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

In this sentence, the most natural English translation is finds, but Norwegian present tense can often cover both simple present and present progressive.

It can mean both, depending on context.

Norwegian does not use a separate tense as often as English does for the progressive. So finner can correspond to:

• finds
• is finding

In a short sentence like Politiet finner giften, English usually translates it as The police find the poison, but are finding could be possible in the right context.

No. In modern Norwegian, verbs do not change for person or number in the present tense.

For example:

• jeg finner = I find
• du finner = you find
• han finner = he finds
• vi finner = we find

So finner stays the same no matter who is doing the action.

Gift is the basic form of the noun, and giften is the definite singular form.

So:

• gift = poison
• giften = the poison

Again, Norwegian usually puts the definite ending on the noun instead of using a separate word for the.

That is a good question, because gift can indeed mean married in Norwegian.

But here, giften is clearly a noun meaning the poison. The adjective gift meaning married is used differently.

For example:

• Han er gift = He is married

But in Politiet finner giften, giften can only naturally be understood as the poison.

This sentence has the normal Norwegian main-clause word order:

subject + verb + object

So:

• Politiet = subject
• finner = verb
• giften = object

This is the most basic pattern in Norwegian. It also fits the V2 rule, which means the finite verb comes in the second position in main clauses. Here, the subject is first, so the verb naturally comes second.