There are 29 letters in the Norwegian alphabet.
The first 26 letters are the same as in the English alphabet. The three additional letters are vowels: æ, ø, å.
If you do not have a Norwegian keyboard, you can write these Norwegian letters written as follows:
- æ can be changed to ae
- ø can be changed to oe
- å can be changed to aa
However, we do recommend that you try and use the correct forms as outlined in our article on writing the Norwegian vowels.
The Vowels in the Norwegian Alphabet
In total, there are nine vowels in Norwegian:
a e i o u y æ ø å
Each of the Norwegian vowels have a short and a long version.
The Consonants in the Norwegian Alphabet
There are in total 20 consonants in Norwegian. You should note that the consonant “J” can be pronounced in two different ways:
[jeː] [jɔdd]The last version is becoming less common, but there are a number of people who will still use this pronunciation.
The following letters are not usually used much in Norwegian and generally only occur in loanwords (i.e. words “borrowed” from other languages):
c q w x z
Examples of these are: camping, quiz, watt, xylofon, pizza
Learn the Norwegian Alphabet
The Norwegian alphabet it fairly easy to learn.
In our interactive exercise below, we have included the phonetic pronunciation of the Norwegian alphabet using the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA). We hope this feature will make it easier for you to pronounce the Norwegian letters.
Long vowels are shown with a colon after them, so make sure to stretch out these sounds.
Unfortunately, most learners trying to learn Norwegian find it quite hard to pronounce the Norwegian vowels. Therefore, you should try to spend some extra time on getting the vowels right.
The best way to learn the Norwegian alphabet is through the “parrot fashion”. That is, listen and repeat until you remember all the letters.
So that you can see the difference between the Norwegian consonants and vowels, we have colour-coded them. The consonants are blue and the vowels are red.
To start learning the Norwegian alphabet, click on the letter you want to practise. The letter will appear on the screen with the phonetic sound written underneath it.
We have also included an audio file. So when the letter comes up on the screen, roll your mouse over the letter so that you can hear how to pronounce it. Then try to repeat the letter.
Continue like this until you are confident that you know the Norwegian alphabet
Top tip: If you can, record yourself and play the recording back. Is your pronunciation correct?
Leave a Reply