Politiet undersøker dødsfallet.

Politiet is the definite form, so it means the police.

In Norwegian, definiteness is usually added to the end of the noun instead of using a separate word like English the:

• politi = police / a police force / police in a general sense
• politiet = the police

So in this sentence, Politiet undersøker dødsfallet, the speaker is talking about a specific police force or the police in the situation being discussed.

Because Norwegian usually puts the definite article onto the noun itself.

Compare:

• en bil = a car

• bilen = the car

• et hus = a house
• huset = the house

Here, both nouns are definite:

• politiet = the police
• dødsfallet = the death / the death case

So Norwegian does not need a separate word before the noun in this sentence.

Undersøker is the present tense of å undersøke.

• å undersøke = to investigate / to examine
• undersøker = investigates / is investigating

In Norwegian, the present tense often covers both English simple present and present progressive:

• Politiet undersøker dødsfallet
  = The police investigate the death or, more naturally, The police are investigating the death

The exact English translation depends on context.

No. Norwegian verbs do not change for person in the present tense.

For example:

• jeg undersøker = I investigate / am investigating
• du undersøker = you investigate / are investigating
• han undersøker = he investigates / is investigating
• vi undersøker = we investigate / are investigating

So undersøker stays the same no matter who the subject is.

Because Norwegian very often forms compound nouns as a single word.

Here:

• død = death
• fall = fall / case / occurrence

Together:

• dødsfall = death, death case, fatality

And then the definite form:

• dødsfallet = the death / the death case

The -s- in the middle is a common linking element in compounds. So this is not unusual at all in Norwegian.

They are related, but not used in exactly the same way.

• død = death, or dead in some contexts
• dødsfall = a death as an event or case, often used in formal, medical, legal, or news language

So in a sentence about police activity, dødsfallet sounds natural because the police are investigating a death case or the death as an event.

Using død here would sound less natural.

It is usually treated as a singular neuter noun in Norwegian, even though in English the police looks plural.

That means Norwegian thinks of it more like the police force or the police service as an institution.

This is one reason English speakers have to avoid translating word-for-word. English says:

• The police are investigating ...

But Norwegian says:

• Politiet undersøker ...

The verb form itself does not reveal singular/plural very clearly, since Norwegian present-tense verbs do not change by person or number, but the noun is grammatically singular.

The word order is the normal Norwegian statement pattern:

Subject + Verb + Object

• Politiet = subject
• undersøker = verb
• dødsfallet = object

So:

• Politiet undersøker dødsfallet.
• The police are investigating the death.

This is very similar to standard English word order in a main clause.

Because Norwegian does not need an extra verb to make the present progressive in this kind of sentence.

English often says:

• The police are investigating ...

Norwegian usually just uses the present tense:

• Politiet undersøker ...

So undersøker by itself can mean investigates or is investigating, depending on context.

Yes, possibly, but the meaning shifts slightly.

• å undersøke = to examine, investigate, look into
• å etterforske = to investigate in a criminal or police sense, often more specifically to conduct an official investigation

So:

• Politiet undersøker dødsfallet can mean the police are looking into the death.
• Politiet etterforsker dødsfallet sounds more like an official criminal investigation.

Both can be natural, but etterforsker is often more specifically police/legal.

A rough guide is:

DØDS-fal-let

A few points:

• ø is a rounded vowel that English does not really have
• døds- has a consonant cluster that may feel awkward at first
• the stress is mainly on the first part: DØDS

You do not need to pronounce every letter in an exaggerated way; in natural speech, the middle consonants can flow together quite smoothly.

If pronunciation is your goal, the most important thing is to get reasonably close on:

• ø
• the rhythm of the compound
• the final -et in fallet

Yes. Because dødsfallet is definite, it often suggests a specific death that speaker and listener can identify from context.

For example, it could mean:

• a death already mentioned
• a death everyone in the news is talking about
• a death in a particular case

If you wanted to say a death more generally, you would usually use the indefinite form:

• et dødsfall = a death

So the definite ending -et matters a lot here.

Yes, this is standard Bokmål.

In Bokmål:

• Politiet undersøker dødsfallet.

A Nynorsk version might look different, for example with a different verb choice or noun form depending on style, but the sentence you were given is clearly normal Bokmål.