Politiet undersøker anklagen.

Politiet means the police.

In Norwegian, this word usually refers to the police as an institution or authority, not necessarily to several individual police officers standing in front of you.

• politi = police
• politiet = the police

So in this sentence, Politiet undersøker anklagen means that the police are investigating or examining the accusation.

The ending -et is the definite article attached to the noun.

In Norwegian, instead of putting the before the noun, you often add the definite ending to the noun itself.

Here:

• politi = police
• politiet = the police

This is very common in Norwegian:

• bil = car
• bilen = the car
• hus = house
• huset = the house

So -et here is doing the job that the does in English.

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

That is why the verb is:

• Politiet undersøker ...

not something like a special plural form.

You can think of it as a collective noun: one institution made up of many people.

English and Norwegian handle this a little differently:

• English: The police are investigating
• Norwegian: Politiet undersøker

Even though the English translation uses are, Norwegian does not need a plural verb here.

Undersøker is the present tense of undersøke.

It can mean:

• investigates
• is investigating
• examines
• looks into

In this sentence, investigates or is investigating is the most natural translation.

So:

• å undersøke = to investigate / to examine
• undersøker = investigates / is investigating

Because Norwegian often uses the simple present where English might use either the simple present or the present continuous.

So:

• Politiet undersøker anklagen

can mean:

• The police investigate the accusation
• The police are investigating the accusation

Norwegian does not need a separate verb like is/are plus -ing here. The present tense undersøker can cover both ideas, depending on context.

Anklagen means the accusation, the allegation, or sometimes the charge, depending on context.

It comes from:

• anklage = accusation / allegation / charge
• anklagen = the accusation / allegation / charge

The exact English word depends on the situation:

• If someone says another person did something wrong, allegation may fit best.
• In a more general sense, accusation is often the safest translation.
• In legal contexts, charge can sometimes work, but not always.

Because anklage is a common gender noun, not a neuter noun.

In Norwegian, the definite singular ending depends on the noun’s gender:

• common gender: often -en
• neuter: often -et

So:

• en anklage = an accusation
• anklagen = the accusation

Compare:

• et hus = a house
• huset = the house

So politiet and anklagen have different endings because they belong to different grammatical genders.

Because the sentence is talking about a specific accusation, not just any accusation in general.

• anklage = accusation
• anklagen = the accusation

So:

• Politiet undersøker anklage would be wrong here
• Politiet undersøker anklagen = The police are investigating the accusation

Norwegian usually marks definiteness directly on the noun, so you need that -en ending.

The basic word order is:

Subject + Verb + Object

• Politiet = subject
• undersøker = verb
• anklagen = object

So the sentence follows a very familiar pattern for English speakers:

• The police
  • investigate/are investigating
    • the accusation

This makes it a straightforward example of normal Norwegian main-clause word order.

Not always, but this is the normal pattern in a simple statement.

A very important rule in Norwegian is the V2 rule: in main clauses, the finite verb usually comes in the second position.

In this sentence, the subject comes first, so the verb naturally comes after it:

• Politiet undersøker anklagen

If another element comes first, the verb still stays in second position:

• I dag undersøker politiet anklagen. = Today, the police are investigating the accusation.

So this sentence uses the simplest and most common word order.

No. It is capitalized only because it is the first word in the sentence.

In Norwegian, common nouns are not capitalized the way they are in German. So politiet would normally be lowercase in the middle of a sentence.

For example:

• Jeg tror at politiet undersøker anklagen. = I think that the police are investigating the accusation.

Here, politiet is lowercase because it is no longer at the beginning.

Yes, depending on the nuance.

For example:

• etterforsker often means investigates in a more specifically criminal or police sense
• undersøker is broader and can mean examines, looks into, or investigates

So:

• Politiet undersøker anklagen = The police are looking into / investigating the accusation
• Politiet etterforsker saken = The police are investigating the case

In your sentence, undersøker is perfectly natural, but it can sound a little broader than etterforsker.

The indefinite version would be:

Politiet undersøker en anklage.

That means:

• The police are investigating an accusation

Compare:

• anklage = accusation
• en anklage = an accusation
• anklagen = the accusation

So the sentence you were given uses the definite form, which suggests a particular accusation already known from the context.