Chapter 5 of 16 · Explore the Norwegian path
Optional reference · Chapter 5 of 16
Find a letter and the sound it makes
Open this when a letter or a letter pair stops you. It gathers all nine vowels with their long and short sounds, every letter group in one place, and the silent letters together.
≈ 4 min of reading · Practise at your own pace
What’s in this chapter
- Open this when a letter or a letter pair stops you; the rest of the path does not need any of it.
- The first card set is the full run of vowels, all nine of them, long and short.
- The second gathers the letter combinations, including the ones the main path treated in passing.
- The last block is the silent letters gathered in one place.
You do not need this section to finish the lesson. Open it when a letter or a letter pair stops you: find the letter, take the sound, and go straight back to the story. Nothing here is meant to be memorised in one sitting.
The nine vowels, long and short
Every Norwegian vowel, with the long and the short reading of each. Find the letter that stopped you, take the sound, and go back to the story.
- along, “ah” as in “father”; short, that same vowel cut off — the respelling writes it adagdahg“day”
- elong, “ay” as in “day”; short, the e of “bed”; unstressed at the end, “uh”tretray“tree”
- ilong, “ee” as in “see”; short, the i of “sit”skishee“ski”
- ousually “oo” as in “moon”; sometimes short, the o of “top”The word for book is said “book”. Let that one carry the rule.bokbook“book”
- u“uu” — “oo” with the lips pushed tight forwardmusmuus“mouse”
- y“ew” — “ee” with the lips roundedThe word for new is said “new”, near enough.nynew“new”
- æthe a of “cat”væreVA-ruh“to be”
- øBritish “her” with no r in itsjøshur“sea”
- å“aw”, as in “law”nårnawr“when”
A vowel is long in front of one consonant and short in front of two — mate
Every letter group in one place
The main path taught the common ones. Here they are all together, with the rest, so you can look up any group that stops you.
- ei“ay”, as in “day”, opening a little lowerneinay“no”
- aithe sound in “eye” — rare, and mostly in borrowed wordskaiky“quay”
- authe a of “cat” gliding into the tight usausa-uu“sheep”
- øylike “boy”, but starting at øøyeOY-uh“eye”
- sj“sh”, made a little further back than English, with the lips outsjøshur“sea”
- skjthe same “sh”skjeshay“spoon”
- skin front of i, y or øy“sh” again — elsewhere a plain skEnglish borrowed ski and then said it wrong. Norwegian says “shee”.skishee“ski”
- kjthe soft hiss of a whispered “huge”, never the ch of “church”kjæreCHA-ruh“dear”
- tjthe same soft hisstjueCHUU-uh“twenty”
- kin front of i or ythe same soft hiss — elsewhere a plain kkirkeCHIR-kuh“church”
- gjygjøreYUR-uh“to make”
- gin front of i, y or eiy — elsewhere a plain ggiyee“to give”
- hvv; the h is silenthvorvoor“where”
- hjy; the h is silent againhjelpeYEL-puh“to help”
- ngthe ng of “singer” — no hard g follows itlengeLENG-uh“a long time”
These are ordinary letters standing next to each other, which Norwegian reads as one sound. Many younger speakers now say kj and tj as “sh” too, so you may hear the sj sound where this list gives the soft hiss.
The silent letters, all together
Every letter Norwegian writes and leaves unsaid, gathered so you can check one. Compare the spelling on the left with the sound on the right.