Hunden har vondt i poten.

Because hunden means the dog, while hund means dog in a more general sense.

• en hund = a dog
• hunden = the dog

The ending -en is the usual definite singular ending for many masculine/common-gender nouns in Bokmål.

So:

• Hund har vondt i poten would sound incomplete or unnatural here
• Hunden har vondt i poten = The dog has pain in its paw / The dog’s paw hurts

Because Norwegian normally expresses pain with the pattern ha vondt = to be in pain / to hurt.

Literally, har means has, so the sentence is structurally closer to:

• The dog has pain in the paw

That sounds odd in English, but it is normal in Norwegian.

Very common examples:

• Jeg har vondt i hodet. = My head hurts / I have a headache.
• Hun har vondt i ryggen. = Her back hurts.

So har is exactly what you expect in this kind of sentence.

Here, vondt means pain, painful, or hurting, depending on how naturally you translate it into English.

In the expression ha vondt, it usually means to be in pain or to hurt.

So:

• har vondt = hurts / is hurting / is in pain

You do not need to translate it word-for-word every time. It is best to learn ha vondt as a fixed expression.

Because in this expression, Norwegian uses the -t form: vondt.

The basic adjective is:

• vond = painful / bad / sore in some contexts

But after ha, the normal idiom is:

• ha vondt

This stays vondt no matter who the subject is:

• Jeg har vondt.
• Du har vondt.
• Hunden har vondt.

So this is something to learn as a set phrase rather than trying to match it directly to English adjective agreement.

i poten literally means in the paw.

In Norwegian, the expression for pain is usually:

• ha vondt i + body part

So you say:

• ha vondt i hodet = have pain in the head
• ha vondt i armen = have pain in the arm
• ha vondt i poten = have pain in the paw

English often uses different wording, such as the paw hurts or its paw hurts, but Norwegian prefers this ha vondt i pattern.

Because poten is the definite singular form.

• en pote = a paw
• poten = the paw

Since the sentence refers to a specific paw belonging to the dog, Norwegian uses the definite form.

Compare:

• Hunden har vondt i en pote. = The dog has pain in a paw / one paw
• Hunden har vondt i poten. = The dog has pain in the paw / more naturally The dog’s paw hurts

Because Norwegian very often uses the definite form of the body part when the owner is already clear from context.

So instead of saying something like its paw, Norwegian commonly says simply:

• poten = the paw

When the subject is the dog, everyone understands that it is the dog’s paw.

This is very common with body parts:

• Jeg vasker hendene. = I wash my hands
• Hun løftet armen. = She raised her arm
• Hunden har vondt i poten. = The dog’s paw hurts

Using an explicit possessive is possible in some contexts, but it is often less natural unless you want emphasis or contrast.

Yes. Poten is singular, so it refers to one paw.

If you wanted to say the paws, you would use the plural definite form:

• potene = the paws

So:

• Hunden har vondt i poten. = The dog has pain in one paw / the paw
• Hunden har vondt i potene. = The dog has pain in its paws

The singular does not tell you which paw unless the context does.

Yes. It is standard declarative word order:

• Hunden = subject
• har = verb
• vondt i poten = the rest of the predicate

So the pattern is:

• Subject + verb + rest

If you turn it into a yes/no question, the verb comes first:

• Har hunden vondt i poten? = Does the dog have pain in its paw?

If you move another element to the front, Norwegian still keeps the finite verb in second position:

• I dag har hunden vondt i poten. = Today the dog has pain in its paw.

In standard Norwegian, ha vondt i + body part is the normal pattern, so i poten is the safest and most natural choice.

Using på may appear in some varieties or in other kinds of expressions, but for a learner, you should remember:

• ha vondt i hodet
• ha vondt i ryggen
• ha vondt i poten

So for this sentence, i poten is the expected form.

A rough guide is:

HOON-den har vont i POO-ten

A few helpful notes:

• hunden: the u is not exactly like English oo, but that is a decent approximation at first
• vondt: the dt is not pronounced fully like English; in normal speech it sounds compact, roughly like vont
• poten: stress is on the first syllable, PO-ten

If you want a more careful pronunciation model, it is best to listen to native audio, because the Norwegian vowels are the hardest part to guess from spelling alone.