Bakeskrapen øker deigspenningen.

Because Norwegian usually writes compound nouns as one word.

So:

• bake + skrape + -en → bakeskrapen
• deig + spenning + -en → deigspenningen

This is very common in Norwegian. Where English often uses two words, Norwegian often joins them:

• dough tension → deigspenning
• kitchen table → kjøkkenbord
• school bus → skolebuss

So even if the English meaning uses more than one word, Norwegian often combines everything into one noun.

The ending -en is the usual definite article for many masculine nouns in Norwegian Bokmål. It means the.

So:

• en bakeskrape = a baking scraper / a dough scraper
• bakeskrapen = the baking scraper / the dough scraper

Unlike English, Norwegian often puts the at the end of the noun instead of as a separate word before it.

For the same reason: -en marks the noun as definite.

• deigspenning = dough tension
• deigspenningen = the dough tension

So the sentence is talking about a specific dough scraper and a specific dough tension, not just the general ideas.

Because in Norwegian, definiteness is often built into the noun itself.

English:

• the scraper increases the dough tension

Norwegian:

• bakeskrapen øker deigspenningen

Here, the is expressed by the endings:

• bakeskrap-en
• deigspenning-en

So you do not need a separate the.

Øker is the present tense of the verb å øke, which means to increase or to raise.

Examples:

• å øke = to increase
• øker = increases / is increasing
• økte = increased
• har økt = has increased

So in this sentence, øker means increases.

No, this is the normal Norwegian word order for a simple statement:

Subject + verb + object

• Bakeskrapen = subject
• øker = verb
• deigspenningen = object

So it works just like normal English word order:

• The scraper increases the dough tension.

Norwegian often matches English word order in basic statements like this.

Yes, but the meaning changes slightly.

• En bakeskrape øker deigspenningen = A baking scraper increases the dough tension
• Bakeskrapen øker deigspenningen = The baking scraper increases the dough tension

So the difference is indefinite vs. definite:

• en bakeskrape = a scraper
• bakeskrapen = the scraper

The s is a common linking element in Norwegian compounds.

Here, it connects deig and spenning:

• deig = dough
• spenning = tension
• deigspenning = dough tension

This s does not always have a separate meaning. It often just helps the compound sound more natural.

Norwegian compounds sometimes have a linking s, and sometimes they do not. It is something you get used to by seeing many examples.

The letter ø is a vowel that does not exist in standard English.

A rough guide:

• It is somewhat similar to the vowel in French deux
• Or like the vowel in British English bird, but with rounded lips

For øker, the pronunciation is roughly:

• Ø: rounded vowel
• ker: like kuh-r with a light r depending on dialect

A very rough English-style hint would be UR-ker, but that is only approximate.

Yes. It follows a very common pattern:

first noun/verb idea + main noun

Here:

• bake relates to baking
• skrape means scraper

So bakeskrape is a scraper used in baking.

The most important part of a Norwegian compound is usually the last element, because that tells you what kind of thing it is. In this case, it is a kind of skrape.

Yes. Norwegian nouns have grammatical gender, and that affects the indefinite article and often the definite ending.

For these words, the forms used here are treated as masculine:

• en bakeskrape → bakeskrapen
• en deigspenning → deigspenningen

In Bokmål, many feminine nouns can also be used with masculine-style forms, depending on the word and the writer’s preference. What matters most for a learner is to learn the noun together with its article:

• en bakeskrape
• en deigspenning

That makes it easier to form the definite versions correctly.