Learn Hardcore Norwegian: Elevene diskuterer om overskriften er ærlig nok og om den passer til teksten. - The pupils discuss whether the headline is honest enough and whether it fits the text.

So Elevene diskuterer … literally means “The pupils/students are discussing …”, with a specific group in mind (for example, the class you are talking about).

What tense is diskuterer, and how would I translate it to English?

Diskuterer is the present tense of the verb å diskutere (“to discuss”).

Conjugation (Bokmål):

å diskutere – to discuss
diskuterer – discuss / are discussing (present)
diskuterte – discussed (past)
har diskutert – have discussed (present perfect)

Norwegian doesn’t have a separate -ing form, so Elevene diskuterer … can be translated as either:

“The students discuss …” (habitual/general), or
“The students are discussing …” (right now), depending on the context.

What does om mean here, and why is it used twice?

Here om is a subordinating conjunction meaning “whether / if” in an indirect question:

diskuterer om overskriften er ærlig nok
→ “discuss whether the headline is honest enough”

It is repeated before the second clause:

… og om den passer til teksten
→ “and whether it fits the text”

Repeating om is very natural and clear in Norwegian when you have two full clauses:

om overskriften er ærlig nok og om den passer til teksten

You can hear it without repetition in speech:

… om overskriften er ærlig nok og passer til teksten. but the version with om repeated is very clear and stylistically safe for learners.

Why is the word order “om overskriften er ærlig nok” and not “om er overskriften ærlig nok”?

In Norwegian subordinate clauses (clauses introduced by words like om, at, fordi, når), the normal word order is:

[conjunction] + [subject] + [verb] + …

So we get:

om overskriften er ærlig nok
om (conjunction) + overskriften (subject) + er (verb)

Putting the verb before the subject (om er overskriften …) would be wrong here.
Verb-second (V2) word order applies mainly to main clauses, not to subordinate clauses.

Why are overskriften and teksten in the definite form with -en?

Both overskrift (“headline”) and tekst (“text”) are common-gender nouns:

en overskrift – a headline → overskriften – the headline
en tekst – a text → teksten – the text

In this sentence, we are talking about a specific headline and a specific text (for example, the ones in their book or on the board), so Norwegian uses the definite form.

Norwegian often uses the definite form in places where English also uses the, so this is a straightforward “the-headline / the-text” situation.

What does nok mean here, and why does it come after ærlig?

Here nok means “enough” in the sense of “sufficiently”:

ærlig nok → “honest enough”

When nok means “enough” and modifies an adjective, it normally comes after the adjective:

stor nok – big enough
gammel nok – old enough
tydelig nok – clear enough

So ærlig nok is the normal order.
(Elsewhere, nok can also mean something like “probably / I suppose”, but that is not the meaning in this sentence.)

Why is the adjective ærlig and not ærlige?

In predicative position (after er, blir, virker etc.), the adjective in Norwegian does not take -e in the singular:

Overskriften er ærlig. – The headline is honest.
Boka er ny. – The book is new.
Huset er stort. – The house is big.

You only add -e in the plural predicative:

Overskriftene er ærlige. – The headlines are honest.
Bøkene er nye. – The books are new.

By contrast, before a noun (attributive position) you may see -e:

en ærlig overskrift – an honest headline
den ærlige overskriften – the honest headline

So here, after er, ærlig (without -e) is the correct singular form.

Why is the pronoun den used, and not det?

Den refers back to overskriften (“the headline”).

In Norwegian, third-person singular pronouns agree in grammatical gender with the noun they refer to:

en bil (car, common gender) → den
et hus (house, neuter) → det
en overskrift (headline, common gender) → den

So:

… om den passer til teksten
→ “whether it fits the text”, where den = overskriften

If the antecedent had been a neuter noun, you would use det instead.

What does passer til mean here, and could I use passer med or just passer?

In this context passe til noe means “to fit / to suit / to match something”:

Overskriften passer til teksten.
→ “The headline fits / matches the text.”

About variants:

passe til is the most typical choice for combinations that “go well together” (clothes, colors, text–headline, etc.).
passe med can also mean “go together with / be compatible with” and is sometimes used, but passe til teksten is more standard and idiomatic here.
Without a preposition, passe often means things like “fit (size)” (Skjorten passer.) or “look after” (passe barna – look after the children).

So for “whether the headline fits the text”, passer til teksten is the best and most natural choice.

Can this sentence also mean “are discussing” even though there is no -ing form in Norwegian?

Yes. Norwegian present tense (diskuterer) covers both:

English simple present:
“The students discuss the headline …” (in general / regularly)
English present continuous:
“The students are discussing the headline …” (right now)

Context decides which English translation sounds better. Norwegian doesn’t mark that difference morphologically; diskuterer can mean either.

Could I just say “Elevene diskuterer overskriften” instead? What would be the difference?

Yes, Elevene diskuterer overskriften is grammatically correct and means:

“The students are discussing the headline.”

However, it’s less specific. It only says that they are discussing the headline in some way.

The original sentence:

Elevene diskuterer om overskriften er ærlig nok og om den passer til teksten.

specifies what they are discussing about the headline:
they’re discussing whether it is honest enough and whether it fits the text.

Can I replace om with hvorvidt in this sentence?

Yes, you can. Hvorvidt is a more formal word for “whether” in indirect questions.

You could say:

Elevene diskuterer hvorvidt overskriften er ærlig nok og om den passer til teksten.

or, keeping it fully parallel:

Elevene diskuterer hvorvidt overskriften er ærlig nok og hvorvidt den passer til teksten.

This sounds more formal and is more common in written or formal spoken language.
In everyday speech and ordinary writing, om is more natural.