Learn Hardcore Norwegian: Læreren sier at elevene må bli vant til å lese lange tekster uten mobil. - The teacher says that the pupils must get used to reading long texts without a mobile phone.

In Norwegian, verbs of saying, thinking, etc. (si, tro, mene, vite, etc.) are often followed by at to introduce a subordinate clause (a “that‑clause”).

Læreren sier at elevene må bli vant til å lese …
= The teacher says that the pupils must get used to reading …

Here, at works like English that. You can’t leave out at the way you often drop that in English:

English: The teacher says (that) the pupils must get used to reading …
Norwegian: Læreren sier at elevene må bli vant til å lese …
(✗ Læreren sier elevene må … is wrong in standard written Norwegian.)

Why is it elevene and not elever?

Elever means pupils / students (indefinite plural).
Elevene means the pupils / the students (definite plural).

The teacher is talking about a specific, known group (their own class, or the pupils at the school), so Norwegian uses the definite form:

en elev – a pupil
elever – pupils
elevene – the pupils

So:

Læreren sier at elevene må …
= The teacher says that the pupils must … (a definite, specific group)

Why is the word order elevene må bli vant … and not må elevene bli vant … in that clause?

Because this is a subordinate clause introduced by at.

Norwegian has the V2 rule (the verb is in second position) in main clauses, but not in subordinate clauses.

Main clause: Elevene må bli vant til å lese lange tekster.
(Verb må is in second position after the subject or another element.)
Subordinate clause with at:
… at elevene må bli vant til å lese lange tekster.
Here the normal order is: subject – verb – (other stuff)

So in a clause starting with at, you say:

at
- elevene (subject) + må (verb) + bli vant …

Using … at må elevene bli vant … would sound wrong in standard Norwegian.

What exactly does må bli vant til å lese mean, word by word?

Breakdown:

må – must / have to
bli – become / get
vant til – used to / accustomed to
å lese – to read

So må bli vant til å lese literally is:

“must become used to to read” → must get used to reading

The full phrase:

bli vant til (noe / å gjøre noe)
= to get used to (something / doing something)

Compare:

Elevene er vant til å bruke mobil.
The pupils are used to using a phone. (er vant til = are used to)
Elevene må bli vant til å lese uten mobil.
The pupils must get used to reading without a phone. (bli vant til = must become used to)

Why do we have both til and å in bli vant til å lese? Can we drop one of them?

You need both til and å here; they have different roles.

vant til – the expression is vant til (“used to”).
The til belongs to the adjective vant.
å lese – å is the infinitive marker before the verb lese (“to read”).

The pattern is:

bli vant til å + infinitive
to get used to doing something

Examples:

Jeg ble vant til å stå opp tidlig.
I got used to getting up early.
Hun er vant til å snakke norsk.
She is used to speaking Norwegian.

You cannot say:

✗ bli vant å lese (missing til)
✗ bli vant til lese (missing å)

Both are ungrammatical.

What’s the difference between bli vant til and være vant til?

bli vant til = to get / become used to (a process, change over time)
være vant til = to be used to (a state, already accustomed)

Examples:

Elevene må bli vant til å lese lange tekster uten mobil.
The pupils must get used to reading long texts without a phone.
(They are not used to it yet.)
Elevene er vant til å lese lange tekster.
The pupils are used to reading long texts.
(This is already normal for them.)

So bli = become, være = be.

Why is it lange tekster and not lange tekstene or lange tekst?

You have:

lang tekst – a long text (singular, indefinite)
lange tekster – long texts (plural, indefinite)
de lange tekstene – the long texts (plural, definite with article)
lange tekstene – the long texts (plural, definite without de, common in speech/writing)

In the sentence:

å lese lange tekster = to read long texts (in general)

This is about the activity in general, not some specific, known texts. So Norwegian uses the indefinite plural (tekster), just like English:

get used to reading long texts (not “the long texts”)

Lange tekst would be wrong because the adjective and the noun must match in number:

singular: lang tekst
plural: lange tekster

What does uten mobil mean exactly, and why is there no article like en or mobilen?

Uten mobil literally = “without mobile (phone)”.

uten – without
mobil – (a) mobile phone / cell phone (short for mobiltelefon)

In Norwegian, after uten (and some other prepositions), it’s very common to omit the article when you talk about something in a general way:

uten mobil – without a phone / without (their) phones
uten penger – without money
uten jakke – without a jacket

If you say:

uten mobilen – without the phone / without his/her phone (a specific, known phone)

So:

å lese lange tekster uten mobil
= to read long texts without a phone / without using phones (in general, not one specific phone)

How are læreren and elevene formed from their basic forms?

They are definite forms built from the indefinite singular:

lærer (teacher)
- indefinite singular: en lærer – a teacher
- definite singular: læreren – the teacher
elev (pupil, student)
- indefinite singular: en elev – a pupil
- definite singular: eleven – the pupil
- definite plural: elevene – the pupils

Norwegian usually puts the definite article as an ending on the noun:

lærer → læreren
elev → eleven → elevene

Why is the verb sier in the present tense and not sa (past)?

Sier is the present tense of å si (“to say”).
Sa is the past tense (“said”).

Here, Læreren sier … can mean:

Right now / regularly
- The teacher says (is saying / keeps saying) that the pupils must get used to …
  This can describe something the teacher often says as a general rule.
Narrative present
Norwegian sometimes uses present tense like English “historical present” to tell stories, but without more context, the most natural reading is just ordinary present.

If you want a simple past narrative:

Læreren sa at elevene måtte bli vant til å lese lange tekster uten mobil.
The teacher said that the pupils had to get used to reading long texts without a phone.

Why is the adjective lange and not lang?

Norwegian adjectives must agree with the noun in number (singular/plural) and definiteness.

For lang (long):

singular, indefinite: en lang tekst – a long text
plural, indefinite: lange tekster – long texts
plural, definite: de lange tekstene – the long texts

Here, tekster is plural indefinite, so the adjective takes the -e ending:

lange tekster

Using lang tekster would break agreement (singular adjective with plural noun), so it’s incorrect.