Paven snakker til folket.

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

• pave = pope
• paven = the pope

So Paven snakker til folket means The pope speaks to the people.

For many masculine nouns in Bokmål, the definite singular ending is -en.

For the same reason: folket is the definite form.

• folk = people, folk in a general sense
• folket = the people

Here, folk is a neuter noun, so its definite singular form takes -et:

• et folk = a people / a nation
• folket = the people

In this sentence, folket is being used as a collective noun, meaning the people as one group.

Because Norwegian usually expresses the by adding an ending to the noun instead of putting a separate article before it.

So instead of saying something like the pope, Norwegian says:

• paven

And instead of the people, it says:

• folket

This is one of the biggest differences from English.

Snakker is the present tense of the verb å snakke, which means to speak or to talk.

• å snakke = to speak / to talk
• snakker = speaks / is speaking / talks

In Norwegian, the present tense is often formed with -er:

• jeg snakker = I speak / I am speaking
• han snakker = he speaks / he is speaking

Norwegian does not usually separate speaks and is speaking as clearly as English does. The context tells you which meaning is intended.

Til usually means to.

In snakker til, it means speaks to or talks to someone.

So:

• snakker til folket = speaks to the people

This is a common pattern:

• snakke til noen = speak to someone

This is a very common question.

• snakke til noen = speak to someone
• snakke med noen = speak with someone / talk with someone

So til can sound more one-directional: one person addressing others.

• Paven snakker til folket = the pope is addressing the people

But med suggests more of a two-way conversation:

• Paven snakker med folket = the pope is talking with the people

This is the normal main-clause word order in Norwegian:

subject + verb + other elements

So:

• Paven = subject
• snakker = verb
• til folket = prepositional phrase

That makes it very similar to English:

• The pope speaks to the people

Yes, sometimes folket can mean the people in the sense of a population, a nation, or the public, depending on context.

For example:

• folket vil ha forandring = the people want change

In your sentence, though, the most natural meaning is simply the people as the crowd or population being addressed.

Both forms exist, but they are used differently.

• folket usually means the people as a group, collectively
• folkene usually means the people as individual persons, or those people

So in a formal or broad statement like Paven snakker til folket, folket sounds more natural because it refers to the people as one collective body.

This sentence is standard Bokmål.

In Nynorsk, you would more likely see:

• Paven snakkar til folket.

The main difference here is the verb:

• Bokmål: snakker
• Nynorsk: snakkar

A simple learner-friendly approximation is:

PAH-ven SNAK-er til FOL-ke

A few useful notes:

• Paven: the first syllable is stressed
• snakker: the kk makes the consonant sound short and sharp
• til: usually short and unstressed
• folket: stress is on folk

Pronunciation varies somewhat by region, but this approximation is good enough for a beginner.

Yes. Norwegian present tense often covers both ideas.

So Paven snakker til folket could mean:

• The pope speaks to the people
• The pope is speaking to the people

Usually the situation or wider context makes it clear which is meant.

No, not normally.

In Norwegian, nouns are not capitalized just because they are nouns. So:

• paven = correct
• folket = correct

You only capitalize the first word of the sentence and proper names. Since Paven is the first word here, it is capitalized for that reason, not because it is a noun.