Referansepersonen hennes ringer senere og spør hvordan den nye jobben går.

Referansepersonen means the reference person, usually someone who can speak about a person’s work, character, or qualifications.

In natural English, this is often translated more idiomatically as:

• her reference
• her referee
• the person listed as her reference

The word is understandable in Norwegian, especially in job-related contexts, though people may also talk about en referanse or en jobbreferanse.

It is built like this:

• referanse = reference
• person = person
• -en = the

So referansepersonen literally means the reference person.

Norwegian often uses sin/si/sitt/sine for reflexive possession, but only when the possessor is the subject of the same clause.

Here, the subject is:

• Referansepersonen hennes = her reference person

The owner is hennes = her, but the subject is referansepersonen, not hun.

So sin would not work here.

Compare:

• Hun ringer referansepersonen sin. = She calls her own reference person.
  Here sin refers back to hun, the subject.

But in your sentence:

• Referansepersonen hennes ringer ... = Her reference person calls ...

Now the subject is referansepersonen, so you use hennes, not sin.

That is a very common Norwegian pattern.

Norwegian often puts possessives after the noun:

• jobben hennes = her job
• bilen min = my car
• vennen din = your friend

When the possessive comes after the noun, the noun is usually in the definite form:

• referansepersonen hennes = literally the reference person her

This is one of the most natural ways to express possession in everyday Norwegian.

You can also place the possessive before the noun:

• hennes referanseperson

But that often sounds more formal, more contrastive, or more emphatic. In ordinary speech, referansepersonen hennes is very natural.

Because it is in the definite singular form: the reference person.

In Norwegian, definiteness is often shown by adding an ending to the noun:

• en referanseperson = a reference person
• referansepersonen = the reference person

This is one of the biggest differences from English. Norwegian often uses a suffix where English uses a separate word like the.

This is because Norwegian uses double definiteness with many definite noun phrases that have an adjective.

So if you want to say the new job, you need:

• den = the
• nye = new
• jobben = the job

Together:

• den nye jobben = the new job

Why not the other versions?

• nye jobben → usually not correct in standard Norwegian here
• den nye jobb → also not correct, because the noun itself should be definite: jobben

Pattern:

• en ny jobb = a new job
• den nye jobben = the new job

Because the noun phrase is definite.

Compare:

• en ny jobb = a new job
• den nye jobben = the new job

In Norwegian, adjectives often change form depending on whether the noun is indefinite, definite, singular, plural, etc.

Here:

• ny is used in the singular indefinite: en ny jobb
• nye is used in the definite phrase: den nye jobben

So nye is required because the phrase is definite.

Yes, gå can mean to walk, but it has many other uses too.

In this sentence, hvordan den nye jobben går means:

• how the new job is going

This is similar to English, where go can also be used in a broader sense:

• How is the job going?

So here gå means something like:

• to go
• to proceed
• to turn out
• to be going

It is a very common Norwegian expression:

• Hvordan går det? = How’s it going?
• Hvordan går det på skolen? = How’s school going?
• Hvordan går den nye jobben? = How’s the new job going?

Because this is an embedded question (also called an indirect question).

Direct question:

• Hvordan går den nye jobben?
  = How is the new job going?

Embedded question after spør:

• ... spør hvordan den nye jobben går.
  = ... asks how the new job is going.

In embedded questions, Norwegian usually uses statement word order, not the inverted word order of a direct question.

So:

• direct question: Hvordan går den nye jobben?
• indirect question: hvordan den nye jobben går

This is very important and very common in Norwegian.

Because om is mainly used for whether/if clauses, not for wh-questions like how, what, where, etc.

Compare:

• Hun spør om jobben går bra.
  = She asks whether/if the job is going well.

But:

• Hun spør hvordan jobben går.
  = She asks how the job is going.

Since the clause begins with hvordan (how), you do not use om.

Norwegian often uses the present tense for future meaning when the context makes the time clear.

So:

• ringer senere literally looks like calls later
• but it naturally means will call later / calls later

This is very normal in Norwegian.

Examples:

• Jeg kommer i morgen. = I’m coming tomorrow.
• Hun drar senere. = She’s leaving later.
• Referansepersonen hennes ringer senere. = Her reference person will call later.

The word senere makes the future time clear.

Senere means later.

In your sentence:

• Referansepersonen hennes ringer senere ...
• = Her reference person calls/will call later ...

It often comes after the verb, but Norwegian word order can vary depending on style and emphasis.

For example:

• Hun ringer senere. = She’ll call later.
• Senere ringer hun. = Later, she calls / She calls later.
  This version changes the emphasis and triggers verb-second word order.

In your sentence, ringer senere is the most neutral and natural ordering.

Yes, and that is completely normal here.

The structure is:

• ringer senere og spør ...
• calls later and asks ...

Both ringer and spør are finite present-tense verbs, joined by og (and).

This is just coordination:

• Hun kommer og spiser. = She comes and eats.
• Han sitter og leser. = He sits and reads.
  (This can also have a slightly different aspectual feel in some contexts.)

Here, there is no need for å because spør is not an infinitive. It is another main verb coordinated with ringer.

Yes. A natural English rendering would often be something like:

• Her reference calls later and asks how the new job is going.
• Her referee calls later and asks how the new job is going.
• The person she listed as a reference calls later and asks how the new job is going.

A more word-for-word version would be:

• Her reference person calls later and asks how the new job goes/is going.

The best English choice depends on context, but grammatically the Norwegian sentence is straightforward once you understand the possessive structure and the embedded question.

The sentence can be broken down like this:

• Referansepersonen hennes = subject noun phrase
• ringer = first verb
• senere = time adverb
• og = and
• spør = second verb
• hvordan den nye jobben går = embedded question functioning as the object/content of spør

So the overall structure is:

• [Subject] + [verb] + [time expression] + og + [verb] + [embedded question]

More explicitly:

• Referansepersonen hennes
  = Her reference person
• ringer senere
  = calls later / will call later
• og spør
  = and asks
• hvordan den nye jobben går
  = how the new job is going

This is a very typical Norwegian sentence pattern.