Sykepleieren svarer smilende og ber oss vente i et stille rom.

The nurse answers with a smile and asks us to wait in a quiet room.

Breakdown of Sykepleieren svarer smilende og ber oss vente i et stille rom.

• et: a
• i: in
• og: and
• oss: us
• stille: quiet
• rommet: the room
• vente: to wait
• svare: to answer
• be: to ask
• sykepleieren: the nurse
• smilende: smiling

Questions & Answers about Sykepleieren svarer smilende og ber oss vente i et stille rom.

Why is sykepleieren written with -en at the end?

Sykepleier means nurse. Adding -en makes it definite singular (the nurse):

• en sykepleier = a nurse
• sykepleieren = the nurse
  This is very common in Norwegian: the word for the is usually attached to the noun.

What tense are svarer and ber, and do they change for person like in English?

Both svarer (answers) and ber (asks/tells) are present tense. Norwegian verbs do not change for person:

• jeg svarer, du svarer, han/hun svarer, vi svarer … all the same form.

What does smilende do here—why not just use a verb like smiler?

smilende is the present participle of å smile (to smile) and is used like an adverb: smiling / with a smile.
So svarer smilende is like answers, smiling.
Using smiler would make it a separate finite verb and usually needs a different structure, e.g. Sykepleieren smiler og svarer (The nurse smiles and answers).

Does svarer smilende mean “answers with a smile” or “answers while smiling”?

It mainly conveys while smiling (simultaneous action), and it also implies the manner of answering (in a friendly way). Norwegian often uses a participle like this to pack both ideas into one phrase.

Why is there no comma before og in svarer smilende og ber?

Because it’s a simple coordination of two verb phrases with the same subject:
[Sykepleieren] svarer … og ber …
A comma is normally not used before og in that structure.

What does ber mean here, and how is it different from English beg?

å be can mean to ask or to request, and sometimes to tell someone (politely) to do something.
Even though beg is a possible translation in some contexts, ber is very often just neutral/polite asks:

• Hun ber oss vente = She asks us to wait / She tells us to wait (politely).

Why is it ber oss vente and not ber oss å vente?

After verbs like å be (ask/request), Norwegian typically uses a bare infinitive (without å) when there’s an object like oss:

• Hun ber oss vente (common/standard)
  You can also see ber oss om å vente in some contexts, but that adds om and changes the structure.

What is the grammar of oss here?

oss is the object pronoun for we/us. It’s the direct object of ber:

• ber oss = asks us
  So the nurse is addressing a group including the speaker.

Is vente an infinitive, and what exactly is happening with it?

Yes, vente is the infinitive of å vente (to wait). Here it functions as the action the nurse is requesting:

• ber oss vente = asks us to wait

Why is it i et stille rom and not i en stille rom?

Because rom is a neuter noun in Norwegian:

• et rom = a room
  Neuter nouns use et, not en.

Why is the adjective stille and not something like stillt or stilt?

With et + neuter singular nouns, many adjectives take a -t ending (e.g. et stort rom).
But adjectives ending in -ig, -lig, -en, and many in -e typically do not add -t in neuter. stille is one of these, so it stays stille:

• et stille rom = a quiet room

Could the sentence also be phrased with på instead of i?

Usually i is correct for being inside a room: i et rom.
på is used for surfaces or certain locations, but for an interior space like a room, på et rom is generally not natural unless a special context makes it sound like a “ward/room number situation” in some dialectal or contextual uses.