Han overgir seg til politiet.

The verb is å overgi seg, which means to surrender.

In the sentence, overgir is the present tense form:

• å overgi seg = to surrender
• han overgir seg = he surrenders / he is surrendering

So overgir is built from the infinitive overgi.

A quick pattern:

• å overgi seg — to surrender
• overgir seg — surrenders / is surrendering
• overga seg — surrendered
• har overgitt seg — has surrendered

Because å overgi seg is a reflexive verb in this meaning.

That means the action goes back to the subject:

• Han overgir seg = He surrenders himself

In natural English, we usually just say he surrenders, but Norwegian often keeps the reflexive pronoun here.

So:

• han = he
• seg = himself / herself / itself / themselves, depending on the subject

In this sentence, seg refers back to han.

They mean different things.

• Han overgir seg = He surrenders
• Han overgir ham = He hands him over / gives him up

So seg shows that the subject and the object are the same person.
If you used ham, it would mean he is doing something to another male person.

This is an important distinction:

• reflexive: seg
• non-reflexive object: ham, henne, etc.

Because Norwegian uses til with å overgi seg to show who someone is surrendering to.

So:

• overgi seg til noen = surrender to someone

Examples:

• Han overgir seg til politiet. = He surrenders to the police.
• Soldatene overga seg til fienden. = The soldiers surrendered to the enemy.

Here, til works very much like English to.

Politiet is the definite form, meaning the police.

So:

• politi = police / a police force / police as a concept
• politiet = the police

In this sentence, you are talking about a specific institution: the police.

This is very common in Norwegian:

• Han gikk til politiet. = He went to the police.
• Politiet kom raskt. = The police came quickly.

Even though English police looks plural, Norwegian politiet is treated as a singular neuter noun in form.

It can mean either, depending on context.

Norwegian present tense often covers both:

• He surrenders
• He is surrendering

So Han overgir seg til politiet could mean:

• He surrenders to the police
• He is surrendering to the police

Context tells you which is most natural.

The word order is:

• Han — subject
• overgir — verb
• seg — reflexive object
• til politiet — prepositional phrase

So:

Han | overgir | seg | til politiet

This is normal Norwegian main-clause word order: the verb comes early, in the usual second-position pattern.

Because seg is a pronoun object, and pronouns usually come before longer phrases like prepositional phrases.

So this order is natural:

• Han overgir seg til politiet.

Not:

• Han overgir til politiet seg. ✗

Norwegian generally places short object pronouns earlier in the sentence.

You may sometimes hear similar expressions, but Han overgir seg til politiet is the standard and most straightforward version.

For a learner, it is best to remember:

• å overgi seg til noen = to surrender to someone

That is the safest and most useful pattern.

Not quite.

• seg = himself/herself/themselves, in a normal reflexive way
• seg selv = himself/herself/themselves, with extra emphasis

In your sentence, plain seg is enough:

• Han overgir seg til politiet.

If you said Han overgir seg selv til politiet, it would sound more emphatic, like He surrenders himself to the police.

Usually, seg is the natural choice.

It can be used with several third-person subjects.

Examples:

• Han overgir seg. = He surrenders.
• Hun overgir seg. = She surrenders.
• De overgir seg. = They surrender.
• Politiet overga seg ikke. = The police did not surrender.

So seg is a reflexive pronoun used for third person.

For first and second person, Norwegian uses different forms:

• jeg overgir meg = I surrender
• du overgir deg = you surrender
• vi overgir oss = we surrender

It would be:

• Han overga seg til politiet. = He surrendered to the police.

Other useful forms:

• Han har overgitt seg til politiet. = He has surrendered to the police.
• Han skal overgi seg til politiet. = He will surrender to the police.

So if you know overgir, it is helpful to learn the other forms too:

• å overgi seg
• overgir seg
• overga seg
• har overgitt seg

A rough guide for an English speaker:

• Han ≈ hahn
• overgir ≈ OH-ver-yeer
• seg often sounds like sai or sei, depending on accent
• til ≈ teel
• politiet ≈ po-lee-TEE-et

A few notes:

• The g in gir is pronounced like English y.
• politiet has the main stress on -ti-: po-li-TI-et.
• Pronunciation can vary by dialect.

It is completely normal and natural.

You could see or hear it in:

• news reports
• crime stories
• everyday conversation
• police-related contexts

Examples:

• Mannen overga seg til politiet etter flere timer.
• Han bestemte seg for å overgi seg.

So this is real, useful Norwegian, not an artificially formal phrase.