De vil befri fangen.

Not necessarily. In De vil befri fangen., De is capitalized simply because it is the first word of the sentence.

A useful extra note:

• de normally means they
• De can also be a very formal, old-fashioned way of writing you in Norwegian

But in a sentence-initial position, capitalization alone does not tell you which one it is. You have to rely on context or the given meaning.

Vil is a modal verb.

In this sentence, it works like English want to or sometimes will / intend to, depending on context. Norwegian ville / vil often expresses:

• desire
• intention
• willingness

So vil does not always match English will exactly.

Because vil is a modal verb, and after modal verbs in Norwegian, the next verb normally appears in the infinitive without å.

So you get:

• De vil befri fangen.

Compare:

• De prøver å befri fangen. = They are trying to free the prisoner.

So:

• after a modal verb like vil, kan, skal, må → usually no å
• after many other verbs → å is often required

Yes. Befri is the infinitive form of the verb.

The full dictionary form is:

• å befri = to free / to liberate

But after vil, the å drops:

• å befri
• vil befri

Fangen is the definite singular form of fange.

That means:

• en fange = a prisoner / a captive
• fangen = the prisoner / the captive

So Norwegian usually attaches the definite article to the end of the noun instead of using a separate word like English the.

Because Norwegian often expresses definiteness with a suffix on the noun.

Here:

• fange = prisoner
• fangen = the prisoner

So the ending -en is doing the job that English the does.

The structure is:

• De = subject
• vil = finite verb / modal verb
• befri = infinitive
• fangen = object

So the pattern is:

Subject + finite verb + infinitive + object

That is normal Norwegian main-clause word order.

Not always. Fange can mean:

• prisoner
• captive

So it can refer to someone in prison, but it can also be used more generally for someone being held against their will.

Sometimes, yes, but not in a simple one-to-one way.

Norwegian vil can express:

• wanting to do something
• intending to do something
• sometimes future meaning

So context decides how it should sound in English. In many sentences, vil is better understood as want to rather than a pure future marker.

It can, but only in a very formal or old-fashioned style.

In modern everyday Norwegian:

• de usually means they
• du means you (singular)
• dere means you (plural)

So unless the context is very formal or old-fashioned, learners should usually read de as they.

Fange is normally a common-gender noun in Bokmål.

That gives you:

• en fange = a prisoner
• fangen = the prisoner

For common-gender nouns, the definite singular ending is usually -en.

You would usually move the finite verb vil before the subject:

• Vil de befri fangen?

This is standard Norwegian question word order for yes/no questions:

• statement: De vil befri fangen.
• question: Vil de befri fangen?