Norwegian Pronunciation

Norwegian pronunciation is much more regular than English pronunciation. In addition, there is much more agreement between the spelling of Norwegian words and their pronunciation. Therefore, after a bit of study of the Norwegian phonemes and their sounds, it should be relatively easy to manage the pronunciation of most Norwegian words.

Click on phonemes and Norwegian words to hear the associated sound, as spoken by a native speaker. Only those English words marked with an asterisk can be said to contain sounds precisely equivalent to the Norwegian sounds. Other rules of pronunciation can be found at the end of this document.

Norwegian Phoneme Pronunciation Guide

• A very clear distinction is made between long and short vowels; long vowels should be very, very long, and short vowels are quite clipped. When the consonant following the vowel is short (i.e., single), the vowel is usually long, and when the consonant following the vowel is long (i.e. double), the vowel is usually short. e.g.:

  Long Vowel	English Translation	Short Vowel	English Translation
  tak	ceiling, roof	takk	thank you
  pen	pretty, nice	penn	pen
  min	mine (masc.)	mitt	mine (neut.)
  god	good (masc.)	godt	good (neut.)
  gud	god	gutt	boy
  ny	new (masc.)	nytt	new (neut.)
  mø	moo	møkk	dung
  lær	leather	lærd	educated
  grå	grey (masc.)	grått	grey (neut.)

  The exception to these rules is that the letter m is never doubled at the end of words, although the preceding vowel is usually short. e.g. hjem (home), rom (room).

• Short e before r is usually pronounced much more like æ. e.g. hver (every)

• When k proceeds i and y, it is pronounced kj. e.g. kirke (church), kyss (kiss)

• gj, hj, and lj are pronounced j. e.g. gjær (yeast), hjem (home), ljug (lie)

• g in front of i, y, and ei is pronounced j. e.g. gi (give), begynne (begin), geit (goat)

• l is sometimes pronounced thick in dialects, but this pronunciation is not used in formal speech.

• r is rolled in eastern dialects, e.g. purre (leek) and uvular in Southwestern dialects, e.g. purre (leek).

• r is usually not rolled in within the combinations rt, rd, rl, and rn. Instead, both consonants are pronounced retroflexively (i.e., right behind the teeth on the roof of the mouth), similar to the way these consonant combinations are pronounced in American English. e.g. kart (map), ærlig (honest), barn (child)

• skj is pronounced the same as the sj diphthong. e.g. skjære (cut)

• sk before i, y, and øy is pronounced sj. e.g. ski (ski), skøyter (shoots)

• In Eastern Norway, the consonant combination rs, whether within a word or in two juxtaposed words, is pronounced as a retroflexed r followed by the sj diphthong. e.g. norsk (Norwegian), person (person), for sent (too late)

• The consonant combination sl is usually pronounced sjl, e.g. slå (hit), Oslo. In formal language, when the s and the l are in two different syllables, they are pronounced normally, e.g. Oslo.

• g is not pronounced in the word ending ig. e.g. ærlig (honest)

• When a word ends with rd, the preceding vowel is lengthened, and the d is not pronounced. e.g. jord (earth)

• d is often mute at the end of a word when it is preceded by a long vowel. e.g. god (good)

• ld and nd are usually pronounced ll and nn. e.g. holde (hold), land (country)

• t is usually not pronounced at the end of definite neuter nouns. e.g. huset (the house)

• h is silent before j and v. e.g. hjem (home), hver (every)

• v is sometimes silent. e.g. sølv (silver)

Last updated March 26, 2001

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