Vi ringer politiet.

In Norwegian, å ringe can take a direct object when you mean to call someone/somewhere.

• Vi ringer politiet. = We’re calling the police.
• Jeg ringer moren min. = I’m calling my mother.

In English, we often say call someone too, so this matches fairly well.

You may also see ringe til, especially in some contexts or varieties, but for a basic sentence like this, ringe + direct object is very common and natural.

Politiet is the definite form of politi.

• politi = police
• politiet = the police

In Norwegian, you usually say the police when talking about the institution you are contacting, so Vi ringer politiet is the normal form.

This is different from English in one important way: English police does not change form, but Norwegian often marks definiteness directly on the noun.

Grammatically, politiet is singular/neuter in form, even though in English the police often feels plural.

That is why Norwegian uses singular agreement with it in many cases:

• Politiet kommer. = The police are coming.
  (Literally, the Norwegian noun behaves more like a singular collective noun.)

So in Vi ringer politiet, you should think of politiet as a collective institution, not as several individual officers.

Norwegian present tense often covers both:

• we call
• we are calling

So:

• Vi ringer politiet. can mean either We call the police or We are calling the police, depending on context.

Norwegian does not usually need a separate verb like English am/is/are to make the present continuous.

In Norwegian, the present tense of most verbs is formed by adding -r or -er, depending on the verb.

For å ringe:

• infinitive: å ringe = to call / to ring
• present: ringer = call / calls / am calling / is calling / are calling

Norwegian verbs do not change for person:

• jeg ringer
• du ringer
• vi ringer

So ringer is the same present-tense form for all subjects.

Yes, Norwegian normally requires an explicit subject in a full sentence.

• Vi ringer politiet. = We call / are calling the police.

Unlike in some languages, you usually cannot just say Ringer politiet as a normal standalone statement, because the subject is missing. Norwegian wants the subject to be stated.

This sentence uses standard Norwegian main-clause word order:

Subject + Verb + Object

• Vi = subject
• ringer = verb
• politiet = object

So:

• Vi ringer politiet.

This is the same basic order as English We call the police.

Yes. In a yes/no question, Norwegian usually puts the verb before the subject:

• Ringer vi politiet? = Are we calling the police? / Do we call the police?

This is a very common pattern in Norwegian:

• statement: Vi ringer politiet.
• question: Ringer vi politiet?

A simple learner-friendly guide is:

• Vi ≈ vee
• ringer ≈ RING-er
• politiet ≈ po-lee-TEE-eh

A few helpful notes:

• The r in Norwegian is usually clearly pronounced.
• The ng in ringer sounds like the ng in sing.
• In politiet, the stress is typically on the last main part: -ti-et area, especially -ti-.

Exact pronunciation varies a bit by region, but this approximation will be understood.

Not only. Å ringe can mean:

• to call (by phone)
• to ring
• to phone

Examples:

• Jeg ringer deg senere. = I’ll call you later.
• Klokka ringer. = The bell is ringing / The clock rings.

In Vi ringer politiet, the meaning is clearly to call by phone.

Usually no, not if you mean we are telephoning the police.

• ringe = call/phone
• kalle = call/name/summon

So Vi kaller politiet would sound more like We summon the police or We call for the police, not specifically we phone the police.

If the situation is about making a phone call, Vi ringer politiet is the best choice.

The past tense of å ringe is ringte.

So:

• Vi ringer politiet. = We are calling / call the police.
• Vi ringte politiet. = We called the police.

This is useful because many learners want to compare the tense forms right away:

• infinitive: å ringe
• present: ringer
• past: ringte
• past participle: ringt