Vi venter høyst ti minutter.

Høyst means at most, no more than, or maximum.

So Vi venter høyst ti minutter means that ten minutes is the limit.

In everyday Norwegian, people also often use:

• maks
• maksimalt

For example:

• Vi venter maks ti minutter.
• Vi venter maksimalt ti minutter.

Høyst is perfectly correct, but it can sound a little more formal or written than maks.

Norwegian very often uses the present tense to talk about the near future, especially when the situation is already decided or obvious from context.

So:

• Vi venter høyst ti minutter.

can naturally mean:

• We are waiting at most ten minutes
• We’ll wait at most ten minutes

This is very common in Norwegian.

If you want, you can also make the future more explicit with skal:

• Vi skal vente høyst ti minutter.

But in many situations, the simple present sounds more natural.

Because Norwegian normally expresses duration directly, without a preposition like English for.

So Norwegian says:

• Vi venter ti minutter.
• literally: We wait ten minutes

where English usually says:

• We wait for ten minutes or more naturally:
• We wait ten minutes

This is normal with time expressions in Norwegian:

• Jeg sov tre timer. = I slept for three hours.
• Han jobbet hele dagen. = He worked all day.

So ti minutter is just the time span.

Because this is an indefinite plural time expression.

• minutter = minutes
• minuttene = the minutes

Here we are talking about an amount of time, not a specific known set of minutes, so Norwegian uses ti minutter.

Compare:

• Vi venter ti minutter. = We wait ten minutes.
• De ti minuttene var lange. = Those ten minutes were long.

So in your sentence, minutter is the normal form.

Good question. Vente often appears with på when you say what or who you are waiting for:

• Vi venter på bussen. = We’re waiting for the bus.
• Jeg venter på Anna. = I’m waiting for Anna.

But if you are only talking about the act of waiting and/or how long, you do not need på:

• Vi venter høyst ti minutter.

You can also combine both:

• Vi venter på bussen høyst ti minutter.

So på is used for the thing/person waited for, not for the length of time.

Yes, you may hear i with time duration in Norwegian, but in this sentence Vi venter høyst ti minutter is very natural and straightforward.

With many duration expressions, Norwegian often omits the preposition:

• Jeg leste to timer.
• Vi ventet ti minutter.

Adding i can sometimes sound a bit more explicit:

• Vi venter i høyst ti minutter.

But the version without i is very common and idiomatic. For a learner, Vi venter høyst ti minutter is an excellent model.

Because vi is the subject form of we.

In the sentence:

• Vi venter høyst ti minutter.

vi is the one doing the action, so it must be the subject form.

Compare:

• Vi venter. = We are waiting.
• Han ser oss. = He sees us.

So:

• vi = we
• oss = us

In this sentence, høyst naturally comes before the number it modifies:

• Vi venter høyst ti minutter.

That is because høyst describes the amount ten minutes.

This is similar to English:

• at most ten minutes

Putting it right before the number is the most natural choice.

You may sometimes see other word orders in different contexts, but for this sentence, høyst ti minutter is the standard and best pattern.

A rough guide is:

• høyst ≈ HOYST, but with the Norwegian vowel ø, which does not exist in standard English

A few points:

• høy sounds somewhat like the beginning of English hoist, but not exactly
• the ø is a rounded front vowel
• st is pronounced clearly at the end

If it helps, think of høyst as one syllable.

Learners usually need the most practice with ø. That vowel also appears in words like:

• søt
• rød
• øl

People would understand it easily, and it is fully correct. But in everyday speech, many speakers might choose a slightly more conversational version, such as:

• Vi venter maks ti minutter.
• Vi venter ikke mer enn ti minutter.

So:

• høyst = correct, clear, a bit more formal or written
• maks / ikke mer enn = often more conversational

All of them are natural Norwegian, just with slightly different style.