Han bruker en gammeldags telefon.

Bruker is the present tense form of the verb å bruke.

• å bruke = to use
• bruker = use / uses / am using / is using, depending on context

So in this sentence, han bruker is the normal present-tense verb phrase.

It can mean either one, depending on context.

In Norwegian, the present tense often covers both:

• a habitual meaning: He uses an old-fashioned phone
• a right-now meaning: He is using an old-fashioned phone

Without more context, many learners would first understand it as a general fact or habit.

If you wanted to make the ongoing meaning especially clear, Norwegian can also use expressions like:

• Han sitter og bruker en gammeldags telefon = he is sitting there using an old-fashioned phone

But the simple present is very common on its own.

Because telefon is a common-gender noun in Bokmål, so it takes en in the indefinite singular.

• en telefon = a phone
• telefonen = the phone

Norwegian nouns have grammatical gender, and in Bokmål the main distinction is:

• common gender: usually takes en
• neuter: takes et

So you have to learn the noun together with its article: en telefon.

Here, gammeldags is in its basic form, which is the form used with an indefinite singular common-gender noun like en telefon.

So:

• en gammeldags telefon

A useful thing to know is that gammeldags is one of those adjectives whose neuter singular form is also gammeldags, not gammeldagst.

Compare:

• en gammeldags telefon
• et gammeldags kamera

But in plural and definite forms, you normally get gammeldagse:

• gammeldagse telefoner = old-fashioned phones
• den gammeldagse telefonen = the old-fashioned phone

So the sentence uses the correct form for this noun phrase.

The word order is:

Subject + Verb + Object

• Han = subject
• bruker = verb
• en gammeldags telefon = object

So the sentence structure is very straightforward.

It also follows the normal Norwegian rule that in a main clause, the finite verb is in second position. Since Han comes first, bruker comes second.

For example:

• Han bruker en gammeldags telefon
• I dag bruker han en gammeldags telefon

In the second example, I dag is first, so the verb bruker still stays in second position, and han moves after it.

Yes, sometimes.

The verb å bruke is quite broad and can mean:

• use
• wear
• sometimes employ or apply, depending on context

Examples:

• Han bruker en telefon = He uses a phone
• Han bruker hatt = He wears a hat
• Hun bruker briller = She wears glasses

In your sentence, because the object is telefon, the meaning is clearly uses, not wears.

Here, en is the indefinite article, like a/an in English.

• en gammeldags telefon = an old-fashioned phone

In this sentence, the article sounds natural and expected, just as it does in English.

Norwegian can sometimes omit an article in certain expressions, but with a countable singular noun like telefon, you normally use the article when the meaning is indefinite.

So Han bruker gammeldags telefon would sound wrong or at least very unnatural in standard Norwegian.

This is about indefinite vs definite forms.

• en gammeldags telefon = an old-fashioned phone

  • any such phone, not a specific one already identified

• telefonen = the phone

  • a specific phone

• den gammeldagse telefonen = the old-fashioned phone

  • a specific phone, and you describe it as old-fashioned

So if you say:

• Han bruker en gammeldags telefon
  you are introducing it as an old-fashioned phone.

If you say:

• Han bruker den gammeldagse telefonen
  you mean a specific phone that both speaker and listener can identify.

A rough pronunciation guide is:

• bruker ≈ BROO-ker
• gammeldags ≈ GAHM-mel-dahks

A few tips:

• u in bruker is not exactly like English oo, but BROO-ker is a useful approximation.
• gammel in gammeldags is pronounced more like gahm-mel than like English game.
• The end of gammeldags often sounds like dahks.

A rough pronunciation of the full sentence is:

Han bruker en gammeldags telefon
≈ hahn BROO-ker en GAHM-mel-dahks tele-FOHN

The exact pronunciation varies by dialect, but that approximation is good enough to get started.

Only if it begins the sentence.

In Norwegian, pronouns like han are not normally capitalized in the middle of a sentence.

So:

• Han bruker en gammeldags telefon.
  capitalized because it is the first word

But:

• I dag bruker han en gammeldags telefon.
  here han is lowercase

This is similar to English sentence capitalization, but unlike German, where pronouns are treated differently from nouns in other ways.