Politiet finner hovedkvarteret.

Because both nouns are in the definite singular form, and they are treated as neuter nouns.

In Norwegian, the is often not a separate word like in English. Instead, it is added to the end of the noun:

• et hovedkvarter = a headquarters
• hovedkvarteret = the headquarters

And similarly:

• politi = police / police force
• politiet = the police

So the ending -et here is the definite ending for many neuter nouns.

Norwegian usually expresses definiteness by adding an ending to the noun instead of using a separate article.

So instead of saying something like the headquarters with a separate word, Norwegian normally says:

• hovedkvarteret

This is one of the biggest differences from English noun structure. Very often:

• en bil = a car
• bilen = the car
• et hus = a house
• huset = the house

The same pattern appears in politiet and hovedkvarteret.

Grammatically, politiet is treated as singular, even though in English the police often feels plural.

That is why the verb is finner, not a special plural form. In Norwegian, the verb form does not change for singular vs. plural subjects anyway, but politiet is still understood as a singular collective noun: the police as an institution or force.

So:

• Politiet finner ... = The police find ...

Even though the English translation may look plural, the Norwegian noun itself is a definite form of politi.

The base form is politi.

You can think of the forms like this:

• politi = police / police force
• politiet = the police

Unlike many ordinary countable nouns, politi is often used as a collective noun rather than something you count as one police, two polices.

Finner is the present tense of the verb å finne (to find).

So the pattern is:

• å finne = to find
• finner = find / finds
• fant = found
• har funnet = have/has found

A useful point for English speakers: Norwegian verbs do not change according to person.

So you get:

• jeg finner = I find
• du finner = you find
• han finner = he finds
• vi finner = we find

The verb form stays the same.

This is the normal word order for a simple main clause:

Subject + Verb + Object

• Politiet = subject
• finner = verb
• hovedkvarteret = object

So it works just like basic English word order here.

However, Norwegian is also a V2 language, which means the finite verb usually stays in the second position in main clauses. If you move something else to the front, the verb still stays second:

• Politiet finner hovedkvarteret.
• I dag finner politiet hovedkvarteret.

Notice that when I dag comes first, finner still stays in second position.

The indefinite singular form is et hovedkvarter.

So the pair is:

• et hovedkvarter = a headquarters
• hovedkvarteret = the headquarters

This also shows that hovedkvarter is a neuter noun, because the indefinite article is et.

You know it from its dictionary form: et hovedkvarter.

In Norwegian, nouns are learned together with their article:

• en for many masculine/feminine-type nouns in Bokmål
• et for neuter nouns

Since it is et hovedkvarter, the definite singular becomes hovedkvarteret.

So the -et ending matches the noun’s gender.

Yes, in standard Bokmål it is commonly treated as a neuter noun in this kind of use, giving the definite form politiet.

For learners, the main practical thing to remember is simply:

• politiet = the police

This word behaves a bit more like a collective/institutional noun than a simple everyday count noun, so it is best learned as a complete vocabulary item.

No. That would combine the indefinite article with the definite noun ending, and that is not how Norwegian normally works.

Use either:

• et hovedkvarter = a headquarters

or:

• hovedkvarteret = the headquarters

Not both together.

The same idea applies generally:

• en bil / bilen
• et hus / huset

A couple of things may stand out to English speakers:

• politiet is pronounced roughly with four syllables: po-li-ti-et
• hovedkvarteret is long and made of parts:
  • hoved = head/main
  • kvarter = quarter / district, but in this compound it contributes to the meaning headquarters

One useful spelling note: in many Norwegian words, spelling and pronunciation are fairly close, but long compounds like hovedkvarteret can feel intimidating at first. It helps to break them into parts.

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

So:

• hoved
  • kvarter → hovedkvarter

Then the definite ending is added:

• hovedkvarteret

English often writes similar ideas as two words, but Norwegian commonly joins them into one. This is very normal and important to get used to.

Yes. Even if the basic meaning is clear, context can affect how natural the English translation sounds.

For example, politiet may refer to:

• the police as an institution
• a police force
• the police officers involved in a case

And hovedkvarteret may mean:

• the headquarters of an organization
• a main command center, depending on context

But grammatically, the sentence structure stays the same.