"Vi tar av oss skoene."

Translation: We are taking off our shoes.

[Sevenof9avdk]

Is skoene really pronounced that way? Sounds strange to me.

[KyleSorbie]

No it's not pronounced that way

[E_lynx]

Yeah the o should mainly be pronounced, not the "ene"

[Yvonne608224]

it is supposed to be pronounced SKONE.

[pietvo]

Is that a common custom in Norway when you enter a house?

[fveldig]

Ja, but only homes. It would not be necessary in schools or public buildings.

[FreakyFriends]

"oss" and "vår" have me confused now. Sometimes translating "oss" as our is wrong but now here it is correct and now you don't use "vår" where I would expect it.
Could someone clear this up for me?

[Bronzdragon]

oss = us, vår = ours.

I hope this helps:
Skoene er våre = The shoes are ours.
Skoene tilhører oss = The shoes belong to us.

[boo913]

Tiny typo. The correct sentence would be "Skoene er VÅRE", because plural.

[-banti-]

Why is 'vår' not used here?

[Bronzdragon]

Because that's the right word.

Us = oss; Our = vår.
The reason this works this way is because 'oss' is part of 'tar av'. 'tar av oss' means 'take off of us'.

What oss is describing is who you're taking the shoes off of, not who owns the shoes.

[MNO97]

Jeg liker where this is going

[Tetraoxid]

How do we know that those are our shoes? Wouldn't that be "Vi tar av oss skoene våre" or something?

[Bronzdragon]

In this sentence, you technically don't know. It's not required to specify in Norwegian though, and we can safely assume that any unclaimed shoes belong to the person taking them off.

[david3dd]

"Vi tar av oss ..." We take off of ourselves. Its reflexive. The "oss" is the reflexive pronoun. A "vår" would be a possessive pronoun. In this case, we remove the shoes from ourselves, with no mention about who might own those shoes.