Sangen er kort.

In Norwegian, the definite article is usually attached to the end of the noun.

• en sang = a song
• sangen = the song

So -en is the definite ending here. That is why Norwegian does not need a separate word like English the in this sentence.

The dictionary form is sang.

You would normally learn it as:

• en sang = a song

Then the definite singular form is:

• sangen = the song

So sangen is just the noun sang with the definite ending -en added.

Sang is a common gender noun in Bokmål, so it takes en in the indefinite singular:

• en sang

Because of that, the definite singular form becomes:

• sangen

Gender matters because it affects articles and sometimes adjective forms.

Er is the present tense of å være (to be).

So it is the Norwegian word for is / am / are, depending on context.

Examples:

• Jeg er trøtt. = I am tired.
• Han er høy. = He is tall.
• Sangen er kort. = The song is short.

Here, kort is a predicate adjective because it comes after er.

In Norwegian, predicate adjectives usually agree with the subject in number, and sometimes gender. With a singular common-gender noun like sangen, you use the basic singular form.

For this adjective, the forms are:

• singular: kort
• plural / definite adjective form: korte

So:

• Sangen er kort. = correct
• Sangene er korte. = The songs are short

A useful extra point: some adjectives show a clearer difference, for example:

• Bilen er fin.
• Huset er fint.
• Bilene er fine.

But kort already ends in -t, so the singular form looks the same in common and neuter singular.

Yes. This is normal Norwegian statement word order:

• Subject + verb + adjective
• Sangen + er + kort

This matches English fairly closely: The song is short.

If you changed the word order to Er sangen kort?, it would become a question:

• Er sangen kort? = Is the song short?

Because the definiteness is already built into the noun itself.

In simple cases, Norwegian usually says:

• sangen = the song
• not the + song as two separate words

A separate determiner like den is usually added when there is an adjective before the noun:

• den korte sangen = the short song

But in Sangen er kort, there is no adjective before the noun, so sangen by itself is enough.

You would say:

• en kort sang

That is different from:

• Sangen er kort. = the song is short
• en kort sang = a short song

So one is a full sentence, and the other is a noun phrase.

In the plural, both the noun and the adjective change:

• Sangene er korte. = The songs are short

Compare:

• singular: Sangen er kort
• plural: Sangene er korte

So the adjective gets -e in the plural here.

A simple learner-friendly guide would be:

• sangen: roughly SAHNG-en
• er: a short air / ehr
• kort: roughly kort, with a short vowel

A few useful pronunciation notes:

• ng in sangen sounds like the ng in English sing
• the stress is on the first syllable of sangen
• in many dialects, er is pronounced quite lightly in normal speech

You do not need a perfect accent at first; getting the rhythm right is more important.