Learn Hardcore Norwegian: I resepsjonen spør vakten om noen har mistet en kvittering. - At the reception the guard asks if someone has lost a receipt.

i resepsjonen literally “in the reception (desk/area)”
på hotellet would be “at the hotel.”
You could hear på resepsjonen in informal speech, but i resepsjonen is the most idiomatic when you mean “at the reception desk.”

What does resepsjonen refer to – a person or a place?

Resepsjonen (with the -en ending) is the definite form of resepsjon and means “the reception desk/area.”

A receptionist (the person) is called resepsjonist.
Resepsjon by itself is “reception,” and resepsjonen is “the reception desk/area.”

Why do we say spør vakten om instead of something like spør vakten for or til vakten?

The verb spørre in Norwegian follows the pattern:
spørre + person + om + question/thing

spør vakten om noen har mistet en kvittering = “ask the guard if someone has lost a receipt”
You cannot use for here. If you wanted to ask for something directly (not ask if/whether), you might say spør vakten etter (e.g. “ask the guard for a pen”).

What does om mean in spør vakten om noen har mistet en kvittering?

In this sentence, om introduces an indirect yes/no question and means “if” or “whether.”
English: “They ask the guard if anyone has lost a receipt.”

Why isn’t the verb inverted in om noen har mistet en kvittering (why not har noen mistet…)?

In Norwegian subordinate clauses (those introduced by om, at, fordi, etc.), the finite verb follows the subject. This is different from main clauses, which use V2 word order.

Subordinate: om noen har mistet en kvittering (S-V)
Main clause example: Har noen mistet en kvittering? (V-S)

What does noen mean here – “some,” “someone,” or “anyone”?

As an indefinite pronoun, noen can mean “somebody,” “someone,” or “anyone,” depending on context. In a question like this it usually translates as “anyone.”
English: “They ask the guard if anyone has lost a receipt.”

Why is the perfect tense har mistet used and not the simple past mistet?

Norwegian, like English, uses the present perfect (har + past participle) to signal a past action with present relevance. Here it describes someone having lost a receipt (and presumably it’s still missing).

har mistet = have/has lost (perfect)
mistet = lost (simple past)
Using har mistet focuses on the current state (a receipt is missing).

Why is it en kvittering (indefinite) instead of kvitteringen (definite)?

They’re asking whether anyone lost a receipt, not a specific one. Using the indefinite article en signals “any receipt.” If you said kvitteringen, you’d refer to a particular receipt previously mentioned.

Could you drop the article and just say mistet kvittering?

No, countable nouns in Norwegian normally require an article or another determiner. You need en kvittering here. Omitting it (mistet kvittering) would sound ungrammatical.

Why is it vakten (the guard) and not en vakt (a guard)?

The context implies there’s a specific guard on duty at the reception. vakten is the definite form (“the guard”), whereas en vakt would mean “a guard” (indefinite) and could suggest any guard in general, not the one present.