Barna vil gjerne ha mais og bønner i salaten, men ikke i suppen.

Barna means the children.

The base noun is et barn = a child.
Its plural is barn = children.
The definite plural form is barna = the children.

In Bokmål, -a is a common definite plural ending in some nouns, and barna is a very common form. So here barna is simply the subject: the children.

Usually it means specific children: the children rather than just children.

So the sentence most naturally refers to children already known from the context, for example a particular group at the table or in the conversation.

If you wanted the indefinite meaning children want..., you would normally use barn instead: Barn vil gjerne ha ...

Vil gjerne ha is a very common Norwegian way to say would like or want in a polite, natural way.

• vil = want / will
• gjerne = gladly / willingly / quite
• ha = have

But as a whole, vil gjerne ha often translates naturally as would like to have or simply would like.

So: Barna vil gjerne ha mais og bønner ...
= The children would like corn and beans ...

Because Norwegian normally puts the finite verb early in the clause, and adverbs like gjerne usually come before the infinitive.

Here the structure is:

• Barna = subject
• vil = finite verb
• gjerne = adverb
• ha = infinitive

So: Barna vil gjerne ha ...

This is standard Norwegian word order.

Not really. In this sentence, ha does not mean possession in the strict sense of owning something.

In food contexts, ha often means something like:

• have in
• include
• want with
• want as part of

So ha mais og bønner i salaten means have corn and beans in the salad or want corn and beans in the salad.

It is about what the salad should contain, not about ownership.

Because Norwegian often leaves out articles when talking about foods or ingredients in a general sense.

So:

• mais = corn
• bønner = beans

Here they are being mentioned as ingredients, not as a corn or the beans in a specific separately identified sense.

This is very natural in Norwegian:

• ha ost på pizzaen = have cheese on the pizza
• ha sukker i teen = have sugar in the tea
• ha mais og bønner i salaten = have corn and beans in the salad

Because both nouns are in the definite singular:

• salaten = the salad
• suppen = the soup

Norwegian usually adds definiteness to the end of the noun:

• en salat = a salad
• salaten = the salad
• en suppe = a soup
• suppen = the soup

In this sentence, the speaker is talking about specific dishes, so the definite forms are used.

This is a very common kind of ellipsis. Norwegian leaves out words that are already understood from the first part.

The full meaning is something like:

Barna vil gjerne ha mais og bønner i salaten, men ikke i suppen.
= The children would like corn and beans in the salad, but not in the soup.

A fuller version could be: ... men de vil ikke ha mais og bønner i suppen.

But repeating everything would sound heavier and less natural. Norwegian, like English, often drops repeated material when the meaning is obvious.

Because ikke is negating that whole phrase: i suppen.

The idea is:

• yes, in the salad
• no, in the soup

So ikke i suppen means not in the soup.

If we expanded the sentence fully, we would get: ... men de vil ikke ha mais og bønner i suppen.

In that full clause, ikke would come after the finite verb vil. But in the shortened version, only the part being contrasted remains: men ikke i suppen.

In everyday Norwegian, mais usually means corn, and in food contexts it often refers to sweetcorn.

So in this sentence, most learners should understand mais as the kind of corn you might put in a salad or soup, not corn as an agricultural crop in a broad technical sense.

Men means but.

It introduces a contrast:

• the children want corn and beans in the salad
• but not in the soup

So men connects two opposite preferences within the same sentence.