Det tok henne en stund å finne et vaskepulver som ikke lukter for sterkt.

In Norwegian, det is often used as a dummy subject in expressions about time, weather, and general situations.

So Det tok henne en stund ... literally means It took her a while ...

This works very much like English it in:

• It took her a while
• It is important
• It is raining

The det does not refer to a specific thing here. It is just required by the sentence structure.

Tok is the past tense of ta, which usually means take.

Here, ta is used in the sense of take time:

• Det tar tid = It takes time
• Det tok henne en stund = It took her a while

So tok is simply took.

Because henne is the object form of hun.

Compare:

• Hun fant et vaskepulver. = She found a laundry detergent.
• Det tok henne en stund. = It took her a while.

So:

• hun = she (subject)
• henne = her (object)

In this sentence, she is not doing the verb tok. Instead, the sentence says that the situation affected her, so Norwegian uses henne.

En stund means a while, some time, or a little while, depending on context.

In this sentence:

• Det tok henne en stund = It took her a while

You can also see it in:

• Vent en stund. = Wait a moment / Wait a while.
• Jeg har bodd her en stund. = I’ve lived here for a while.

It is an idiomatic everyday expression.

Because Norwegian often uses an infinitive phrase after expressions like det tok ... to say what took time.

So:

• Det tok henne en stund å finne ... = It took her a while to find ...

The structure is:

• Det tok + person + time expression + å + infinitive

Examples:

• Det tok meg lang tid å forstå det. = It took me a long time to understand it.
• Det tok oss fem minutter å komme dit. = It took us five minutes to get there.

So å finne means to find.

Et vaskepulver is the indefinite singular form: a laundry detergent / a washing powder.

The sentence means she found some detergent/a detergent that met a condition. It is not referring to a specific previously known detergent.

Compare:

• et vaskepulver = a laundry detergent
• vaskepulveret = the laundry detergent

Since the meaning is not the specific detergent, Norwegian uses the indefinite form.

Also, vaskepulver is a neuter noun, which is why it uses et.

It is a compound noun:

• vaske = wash
• pulver = powder

So vaskepulver literally means washing powder.

In practice, depending on context, it may be translated as:

• washing powder
• laundry detergent

Norwegian uses compound nouns very freely, so learners will see a lot of words like this.

Som introduces a relative clause, like that, which, or sometimes who in English.

So:

• et vaskepulver som ikke lukter for sterkt means
• a laundry detergent that does not smell too strong

The clause som ikke lukter for sterkt describes vaskepulver.

More examples:

• en bok som er interessant = a book that is interesting
• en mann som bor her = a man who lives here

Because after som, Norwegian uses subordinate clause word order.

In subordinate clauses, words like ikke usually come before the finite verb.

So:

• som ikke lukter for sterkt = correct

Compare:

Main clause:

• Det lukter ikke for sterkt.

Subordinate clause:

• ... som ikke lukter for sterkt

This is a very important pattern in Norwegian:

• main clause: verb usually comes early
• subordinate clause: ikke usually comes before the verb

Because the sentence is not saying the detergent smelled strong at one past moment. It is describing the detergent as having a general property: it doesn’t smell too strong.

So:

• Det tok henne en stund = past event
• å finne et vaskepulver som ikke lukter for sterkt = the kind of detergent she was looking for

The present tense lukter is natural here because it describes what the detergent is like in general.

English often does the same:

• It took her a while to find a detergent that doesn’t smell too strong.

For means too in this kind of sentence.

So:

• for sterkt = too strongly / too strong

Examples:

• for dyrt = too expensive
• for varmt = too hot
• for fort = too fast

In this sentence:

• ikke lukter for sterkt = doesn’t smell too strong / isn’t too strongly scented

A very common learner mistake is to think for only means for in the English sense. But Norwegian for also often means too.

Because sterkt is functioning as an adverb here, modifying the verb lukter.

Compare:

Adjective:

• en sterk lukt = a strong smell

Adverb:

• Det lukter sterkt. = It smells strong / strongly
• Det lukter for sterkt. = It smells too strong / too strongly

In Norwegian, many adverbs are identical to the neuter adjective form, which often ends in -t.

So:

• sterk = adjective
• sterkt = adverb here

Not in this sentence.

Lukte can mean:

1. to smell in the sense of give off a smell
2. sometimes to smell of / smell like, depending on structure

Here it simply means smell:

• vaskepulver som ikke lukter for sterkt = detergent that doesn’t smell too strong

If you wanted smells like flowers, you would usually say something like:

• Det lukter blomster or
• Det lukter som blomster, depending on nuance

So here the meaning is about the strength of the smell, not what it smells like.

Yes. After Det tok henne en stund, the rest functions as the thing that took time:

• å finne = to find
• et vaskepulver = a laundry detergent
• som ikke lukter for sterkt = that doesn’t smell too strong

So the full infinitive phrase is:

• å finne et vaskepulver som ikke lukter for sterkt

And that whole phrase answers the question: What took her a while?

Yes, it is completely natural.

It uses several very common patterns:

• Det tok henne en stund ...
• å + infinitive
• a compound noun like vaskepulver
• a relative clause with som
• subordinate clause word order with ikke

So it is a very useful example sentence for learning normal Norwegian structure.