Learn Hardcore Norwegian: Sjefen er alltid høflig overfor de ansatte. - The boss is always polite towards the employees.

In this sentence we are talking about a specific boss (for example, my boss or the boss at this company), so Norwegian uses the definite form sjefen.

At the start of a sentence, Sjefen is capitalized only because it is the first word, not because all nouns are capitalized in Norwegian (they are not).

Why is the word order Sjefen er alltid høflig and not Sjefen er høflig alltid?

In a normal main clause, Norwegian tends to put adverbs like alltid (always) early in the sentence, usually right after the verb:

Subject – Verb – Adverb – Rest
Sjefen (subject) er (verb) alltid (adverb) høflig (adjective)

So:

Sjefen er alltid høflig is the natural word order.
Sjefen er høflig alltid sounds unusual or marked, and would only be used for special emphasis, if at all.

This rule also applies to many other adverbs: ofte, sjelden, vanligvis, etc.:

Sjefen er ofte stresset.
Hun er vanligvis punktlig.

Why is it høflig and not høflige?

Adjectives in Norwegian agree with the noun in number (singular/plural) and sometimes form, but here the subject sjefen is singular, so we use the singular form of the adjective:

Singular: Sjefen er høflig. – The boss is polite.
Plural: Sjefene er høflige. – The bosses are polite.

So:

høflig = singular (used with sjefen)
høflige = plural (used with plural subjects like de ansatte: De ansatte er høflige.)

Could I use mot or med instead of overfor? For example høflig mot de ansatte?

Yes, you will hear other prepositions used, but they have slightly different nuances:

høflig overfor de ansatte
Focus on attitude/behaviour in relation to the employees. This is very common and sounds natural and neutral.
høflig mot de ansatte
Also correct and common. mot literally means towards or to(wards)/against. Here it also describes behaviour towards someone. In many contexts overfor and mot are interchangeable.
høflig med de ansatte
This can be understood, but it is less precise and less idiomatic in this specific sentence. med usually means with, and is not the most natural choice for describing behaviour towards someone here.

So the most typical choices would be:

Sjefen er alltid høflig overfor de ansatte.
Sjefen er alltid høflig mot de ansatte.

What exactly does overfor mean here, and where else is it used?

In this sentence, overfor means roughly towards / in relation to:

høflig overfor de ansatte = polite towards the employees

Common uses of overfor:

Attitude or behaviour towards someone:
- Han var uhøflig overfor læreren. – He was rude towards the teacher.
- Vi har et ansvar overfor barna. – We have a responsibility towards the children.
Physical position: opposite something:
- Huset ligger overfor kirken. – The house is opposite the church (across from it).

Note that overfor (one word) is a preposition. The two-word sequence over for can also occur, but then over and for keep their own meanings, for example in other contexts, and that is a different structure.

What is de ansatte grammatically? Is ansatte a noun or an adjective here?

Grammatically, de ansatte is:

de = the (definite plural article / determiner)
ansatte = an adjective (from the verb å ansette, to employ) used as a noun

So de ansatte literally means the employed (ones), i.e. the employees.

This is a very common pattern in Norwegian: an adjective used as a noun with de:

de rike – the rich
de syke – the sick
de unge – the young (people)
de ansatte – the employees

So ansatte is originally an adjective/participle but functions as a noun phrase here.

How do I say an employee, the employee, employees, and the employees with ansatt?

With ansatt, the usual forms are:

Singular:

en ansatt – an employee
den ansatte – the employee

Plural:

ansatte – employees (indefinite plural, usually in contexts like flere ansatte, mange ansatte)
de ansatte – the employees

Examples:

Firmaet har mange ansatte. – The company has many employees.
En ansatt spurte om lønn. – An employee asked about salary.
Den ansatte var ny i jobben. – The employee was new in the job.
De ansatte fikk en bonus. – The employees received a bonus.

Is de here the same word as they in Norwegian?

The word de can be either:

A subject pronoun: de = they
- De kommer snart. – They are coming soon.
A definite plural article/determiner: de = the (for plural)
- de ansatte – the employees
- de nye naboene – the new neighbours

In de ansatte, de is not a pronoun meaning they, but the plural definite article (similar to the in the employees).

Could I move alltid to another place, like Sjefen alltid er høflig overfor de ansatte?

No, not in a normal declarative main clause with Sjefen as the subject first.

The basic main-clause word order rule in Norwegian is:

Subject – Verb – Adverb – Rest

So:

Sjefen er alltid høflig overfor de ansatte. ✅

If you move something in front of the verb (for emphasis or for a question), the verb must still stay in second position. For example:

Alltid er sjefen høflig overfor de ansatte. (very emphatic / poetic)
Er sjefen alltid høflig overfor de ansatte? (question)

But Sjefen alltid er høflig … breaks this rule (verb in third position) and is ungrammatical.

How do you pronounce sjefen and høflig?

Approximate pronunciation (standard Eastern Norwegian):

sjefen
- IPA: [ˈʂeːfən]
- Roughly like: shay-fen, with a long e sound and a sh-sound that is slightly darker than English sh.
høflig
- IPA: [ˈhœfli] or [ˈhøfli]
- Roughly like: huff-lee, but with the vowel ø like French eu in peur or German ö in schön.
- The g at the end is usually not pronounced as a hard g; it is often very weak or silent.

These are only approximations, but they should help you get close.