Det ligger ekstra toalettpapir på badet, men barna finner det aldri.

In this sentence, the first det is a dummy subject or formal subject. It does not mean it here.

Norwegian often uses det in sentences that introduce the existence or location of something, much like English uses there in there is:

• Det ligger ekstra toalettpapir på badet.
• There is extra toilet paper in the bathroom.

So this det is there because Norwegian main clauses normally need a subject.

Norwegian often uses a position verb where English would simply use is.

Here, ligger comes from å ligge, meaning to lie. It is often used for things that are physically located somewhere, especially when they are thought of as lying, being stored, or just being present in a place.

So:

• Det ligger ekstra toalettpapir på badet = natural, physical-location wording
• Det er ekstra toalettpapir på badet = also possible, but more neutral

Using ligger makes the sentence sound a bit more concrete: the toilet paper is physically there somewhere in the bathroom.

Er is possible, but it is more neutral and less vivid:

• Det er ekstra toalettpapir på badet.

Står usually suggests that something is standing upright. That could work for some objects, but with toalettpapir in general, ligger sounds more natural unless you are specifically imagining rolls standing upright on a shelf.

So:

• ligger = natural here
• er = possible, more neutral
• står = only in a more specific physical picture

Because toalettpapir is usually treated as a mass noun, like water, rice, or paper in English.

So ekstra toalettpapir means extra toilet paper in a general sense, not necessarily a counted number of rolls.

If you want to talk about individual rolls, you would normally say something like:

• ekstra doruller
• ekstra toalettruller

Also, ekstra stays the same form here. It does not change for gender or number in this use.

This is mostly an issue of idiomatic usage.

In Norwegian, på badet is the normal everyday way to say in the bathroom.

• på badet = in the bathroom
• i badet often sounds more like in the bath or focuses on being inside the bath/bathing situation

So even though English uses in, Norwegian commonly uses på with certain rooms and locations.

Badet means the bathroom.

The base noun is bad, which is a neuter noun. In Bokmål, the definite singular of many neuter nouns is made by adding -et:

• et bad = a bathroom
• badet = the bathroom

So på badet literally contains the definite form: on/in the bathroom = in the bathroom.

Barna is the common definite plural form of barn in Bokmål.

• et barn = a child
• barn = children
• barna = the children

You may also see barnene, but barna is much more common in everyday Norwegian and sounds more natural in most situations.

This second det is different from the first one.

Here, det really does mean it, and it refers back to toalettpapir.

So the sentence contains two different kinds of det:

• first det = dummy subject
• second det = object pronoun meaning it

That is very common in Norwegian.

This is about normal Norwegian word order.

In a main clause, the finite verb usually comes in second position. After that, short unstressed object pronouns like det often come before adverbs such as aldri.

So the natural order is:

• barna finner det aldri

This sounds more normal than putting aldri first in that part of the clause.

Compare:

• barna finner det aldri = normal with a short pronoun
• barna finner aldri toalettpapiret = normal with a full noun phrase

It would usually sound less natural in a neutral context.

When the object is a short pronoun like det, Norwegian usually prefers:

• barna finner det aldri

If you say:

• barna finner aldri det

then det may sound more stressed or contrastive, as if you mean they never find that particular thing.

So it is not necessarily impossible, but it is not the normal neutral version here.

Because Norwegian present tense is often used both for:

1. what is true right now
2. what happens habitually

So in this sentence:

• Det ligger ekstra toalettpapir på badet describes the current situation
• barna finner det aldri describes a repeated pattern: they never manage to find it

This works very much like English present tense in a sentence such as There is extra toilet paper in the bathroom, but the children never find it.

Because men means but and joins two main clauses:

• Det ligger ekstra toalettpapir på badet
• men barna finner det aldri

In standard Norwegian punctuation, it is normal to put a comma before men when it connects clauses like this.