De utgjør halve gruppen.

Here it means they.

Norwegian de can mean:

• they in modern everyday language
• you as a formal/polite form in older or very formal style

Because the meaning has already been given to the learner, this sentence is understood as they make up half the group.

A useful note: since De is at the beginning of the sentence, it is capitalized anyway. So the capital D does not by itself tell you whether it means they or formal you here.

Utgjør means constitutes, makes up, or accounts for.

So De utgjør halve gruppen literally means something like:

• They constitute half the group
• They make up half the group

This verb is often used when talking about proportions, totals, or what something forms as part of a whole.

Examples:

• Kvinner utgjør 60 prosent av klassen.
  Women make up 60 percent of the class.

• Denne summen utgjør hele budsjettet.
  This amount makes up the entire budget.

Utgjør is the present tense of the verb å utgjøre.

So the forms are:

• å utgjøre = to constitute / to make up
• utgjør = constitutes / make up
• utgjorde = constituted / made up

In Bokmål, many verbs that end in -e in the infinitive form the present tense with -r:

• å komme → kommer
• å være → er (irregular)
• å utgjøre → utgjør

So De utgjør means they make up / they constitute.

Because halve is the form used before a definite noun.

Compare:

• en halv gruppe = half a group / a half group (indefinite)
• halve gruppen = half the group (definite)

This is a common adjective pattern in Norwegian: when an adjective comes before a definite noun, it usually takes the weak form, often ending in -e.

So:

• halv
  • indefinite noun
• halve
  • definite noun

More examples:

• en stor bil = a big car
• den store bilen = the big car

Likewise:

• en halv kake = half a cake
• den halve kaken = the half cake
• halve gruppen = half the group

Because gruppen is the definite singular form of gruppe.

• gruppe = group
• gruppen = the group

So halve gruppen literally means half the group.

In Norwegian, definiteness is often shown by adding an ending to the noun:

• en bil = a car

• bilen = the car

• en gruppe = a group
• gruppen = the group

This sentence refers to a specific group, not just any group, so the definite form is used.

Because Norwegian often marks definiteness on the noun itself instead of using a separate word like English the.

So:

• English: the group
• Norwegian: gruppen

When there is an adjective before a definite noun, Norwegian often uses double definiteness:

• den store gruppen = the big group

But with words like halve, the structure is a bit different, and halve gruppen is normal.

So even though English says half the group, Norwegian expresses that as halve gruppen, with the definiteness built into gruppen.

Sometimes, but it does not mean exactly the same thing in every context.

• De utgjør halve gruppen = They make up half the group
• De er halve gruppen = They are half the group

The version with utgjør sounds more precise and natural when talking about proportions or statistics. It emphasizes that they form one half of the whole.

The version with er is grammatically possible, but utgjør is often the better choice when you mean constitute or make up.

Yes. A very common alternative is:

• De utgjør halvparten av gruppen.

This means:

• They make up half of the group
• They constitute half the group

Here:

• halvparten = half
• av gruppen = of the group

Both versions are natural:

• De utgjør halve gruppen.
• De utgjør halvparten av gruppen.

The second one may feel slightly more explicit to many learners because it matches English structure more closely.

The structure is:

• De = subject
• utgjør = verb
• halve gruppen = object/complement expressing what they make up

So it follows normal Norwegian main-clause word order:

Subject + Verb + Rest

That makes this a very straightforward declarative sentence.

If you changed the word order by putting something else first, Norwegian would normally invert the subject and verb:

• I denne klassen utgjør de halve gruppen.
  In this class, they make up half the group.

But in the original sentence, the order is the standard one.

A rough pronunciation guide is:

• De ≈ dee
• utgjør ≈ something like oot-YUR / oot-gyur, though the vowel ø does not exist in English
• halve ≈ HAL-veh
• gruppen ≈ GROOP-pen with a short u sound, not exactly like English group

A few important points:

• gj in utgjør can be tricky for English speakers
• ø is a rounded front vowel, so it usually needs practice
• the sentence rhythm is natural and smooth, without strong stress on every word

If you want to sound natural, focus especially on learning the vowel in gjør and the ending -en in gruppen.