Jeg teller til tusen.

Telle is the infinitive, meaning to count.

In Jeg teller til tusen, teller is the present tense form, so it means count / am counting.

• å telle = to count
• jeg teller = I count / I am counting

Norwegian present tense is often made by adding -r to the infinitive:

• snakke → snakker
• bo → bor
• telle → teller

Here, til means to, as in count to one thousand.

This is the normal Norwegian pattern:

• telle til ti = count to ten
• telle til hundre = count to a hundred
• telle til tusen = count to a thousand

So even though til can mean several things in Norwegian, in this sentence it is simply part of the expression telle til.

In Norwegian, numbers like ti, hundre, and tusen are usually used without an article in this kind of sentence.

So Norwegian says:

• til ti
• til hundre
• til tusen

Even though English often says to a thousand or to one thousand, Norwegian normally just uses the bare number word.

It can mean either, depending on context.

In this sentence, tusen is understood as one thousand / a thousand:

• Jeg teller til tusen = I count to one thousand

This is normal in Norwegian. The number word by itself often covers what English expresses as a thousand.

Not exactly.

Jeg teller til tusen means I count to a thousand or I am counting to a thousand.

If you want to say I can count to a thousand, you would normally say:

• Jeg kan telle til tusen

So:

• jeg teller = I count / I am counting
• jeg kan telle = I can count

This is an important difference.

• Jeg teller til tusen = I count to a thousand
• Jeg teller tusen would sound like I am counting a thousand or I count one thousand, which usually feels incomplete unless something follows

For example:

• Jeg teller tusen kroner = I am counting one thousand kroner
• Jeg teller tusen epler = I am counting one thousand apples

So if you mean counting upward until you reach a number, you need til.

A rough pronunciation guide is:

yay TEL-er til TUU-sen

A few notes:

• Jeg is often pronounced something like yay in many varieties of Norwegian.
• teller has a clear tell- sound, with the stress on the first syllable.
• til is short.
• tusen has stress on the first syllable: TUU-sen.

Exact pronunciation varies a bit by dialect, but that rough guide will help.

Yes.

Norwegian present tense often covers both the simple present and the present progressive in English.

So Jeg teller til tusen can mean:

• I count to a thousand
• I am counting to a thousand

Context tells you which meaning is intended.

You put ikke after the verb:

• Jeg teller ikke til tusen.

That means I do not count to a thousand or I am not counting to a thousand.

This is a very common Norwegian pattern:

• subject + verb + ikke

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

• Teller jeg til tusen?

That means Am I counting to a thousand? or Do I count to a thousand?

This verb-first pattern is very common in Norwegian questions:

• Bor du her? = Do you live here?
• Kommer han snart? = Is he coming soon?