The extra letters æ, ø and å, and the vowels that mislead

Norwegian uses your alphabet and adds æ, ø and å at the end. Learn the nine letters an English reader guesses wrong, including the o that usually says “oo”.

≈ 2 min of reading · Practise at your own pace

What’s in this chapter

Norwegian uses your alphabet and adds three letters at the end: æ, ø, å.
The letter o usually says “oo”, so solsool“sun” is “sool”, not “sohl”.
uuu and yew are said with tightly rounded lips; English has neither.
An unstressed final -e is a weak “uh”, and it is always said.
Norwegian usually leans on the first syllable of a word.

Norwegian is written left to right in the alphabet you already read, with three extra letters at the very end: æ, ø, å. They are letters in their own right, not decorated versions of a, o and e, and a dictionary sorts them after z.

The nine letters that decide how a word sounds

These nine are the ones an English reader guesses wrong. Take one at a time: the letter, the sound it makes, and a word that shows it.

æ
the a of “cat”
æ is a and e squeezed into one letter, and it says a vowel that sits between the two.
væreVA-ruh
“to be”
ø
the vowel in British “her”, with no r in it: “ur”
Say the e of “bed”, freeze your tongue there, then round your lips. The tongue must not move.
bjørnbyurn
“bear”
å
“aw”, as in “law”
å is an a wearing a little o on its head, and the little o is the sound.
gågaw
“to go”
u
“uu” — “oo” with the lips pushed tight forward
Round your lips as if to whistle, then say “oo” through them.
hushuus
“house”
y
“ew” — “ee” with the lips rounded
Say “ee”, freeze your tongue there, then round your lips. Again the tongue must not move.
bybew
“town”
o
usually “oo” as in “moon”; sometimes short, the o of “top”
solsool
“sun”
e
long, “ay” as in “day”; short, the e of “bed”; unstressed at the end of a longer word, a weak “uh”
tretray
“tree”
j
y, as in “yes”, standing on its own
The same j English kept in “hallelujah”.
jenteYEN-tuh
“girl”
r
a tap or a roll made with the tip of the tongue
Say “butter” fast: the tt is the tap. Much of western Norway rolls it in the throat instead, and both are ordinary.
revrayv
“fox”

The rest — b, d, f, h, k, l, m, n, p, s, t, v — you can read as English for now. The next two steps show the handful of places where they pair up or go quiet.

Try the vowels once before the real words

sol
One vowel, and it is not the o of “sock”.
Show answer +Hide answer −
solsool“sun”
jente
j says y, and the unstressed final -e is “uh”.
Show answer +Hide answer −
jenteYEN-tuh“girl”

Come back to these chapters whenever you need them.All Norwegian chapters ↗