De bare tuller.

It can be ambiguous without context.

• In modern Norwegian, de usually means they.
• In very formal or old-fashioned writing, De can mean you.

However, in this sentence the word is at the beginning, so it would be capitalized anyway. That means the capital D does not by itself prove that it is the formal you.

So unless the wider context is clearly very formal, most learners would naturally understand De bare tuller as They’re just kidding / They’re just fooling around.

Here bare means just or only.

It softens or limits the statement:

• De bare tuller = they are only joking
• It suggests that what they are saying or doing is not serious

In everyday English, just is usually the most natural translation here.

Tuller is the present tense of å tulle.

Common meanings of å tulle include:

• to joke
• to kid
• to fool around
• to mess about
• to talk nonsense / be silly

So tuller does not only mean telling a joke in the strict sense. It often has a more casual feeling of not being serious, being playful, or talking nonsense.

Because Norwegian usually does not form the present progressive the way English does.

English:

• They joke
• They are joking

Norwegian often uses the same present-tense form for both:

• De tuller

So tuller can mean both:

• joke
• are joking

That is completely normal in Norwegian.

Yes, you can also say De tuller bare.

Both are natural, but the emphasis can feel slightly different:

• De bare tuller: very common in speech; often feels like They’re just kidding
• De tuller bare: also natural; can sound a little more explanatory or matter-of-fact

The core meaning is basically the same. For a learner, the important thing is that both word orders are possible with bare.

It can absolutely stand alone.

In De bare tuller, the verb is used intransitively, so no object is needed.

But it can also appear with more information, for example:

• De tuller med deg. = They’re messing with you / teasing you.
• Han tuller alltid. = He’s always fooling around.

So the short sentence is grammatically complete as it is.

They overlap, but they are not always exactly the same.

• å spøke = to joke
• å tulle = to joke, kid, fool around, be silly, not be serious

Very roughly:

• spøke can sound a bit more specifically like making a joke
• tulle often sounds more like messing around or not being serious

So in many situations either could work, but tulle often has a slightly more playful or casual tone.

This sentence is Bokmål.

The Nynorsk equivalent would typically be:

• Dei berre tullar.

So if you are learning Bokmål, De bare tuller is the standard form to focus on.

A rough guide for an English speaker is:

• De ≈ dee
• bare ≈ BAH-reh
• tuller ≈ TULL-er, though the u is more rounded than in English

So the whole sentence is roughly:

• dee BAH-reh TULL-er

A few notes:

• The exact pronunciation depends on dialect.
• The r in bare and tuller will sound different depending on the speaker.
• The vowel in tuller is not exactly like English u or oo, so an approximate spelling can only go so far.