Pronunciation Guide

Norwegian spelling is pretty simple and regular (compared to, say, English), but like most real languages, unfortunately not completely regular.

Vowels

Each vowel can be pronounced either as "long" or "short". A "short" vowel will almost always be followed by a double consonant (i.e. two similar consonants, such as ll or tt). A long vowel is not.

For example, in Norwegian "it" will be pronounced as in eet, whereas "itt" will be pronounced as English it.

(There are some exceptions to this rule: if the consonant is followed by another consonant, it does not always need to be doubled to make the vowel short.)

The Norwegian vowels are pronounced in almost the same way as in German. There are three additional vowels. æ (Æ), ø (Ø), and å (Å). Here's the full list:

a
like 'a' in "father"

e
like 'e' in "better" (but like æ if it is followed by an r)

i
like 'i' in "pin"

o (short)
like o in "lord"

o (long)
like 'oo' in "spooky"

u
like 'oo' in "foot"

y
like 'i' in "pin" (but darker; y doesn't correspond to any sound in English. English speakers may have difficulty distinguishing Norwegian's i and y. It's similar to German ü or French u.) One starts with making the "o" sound with one's lips but saying the "ee" sound in "steel".

æ
like 'a' in "hat"

ø
like 'u' in "burn". One starts with e and rounds one's lips to produce ø.

å
like 'o' in "lord"

Consonants

b
like 'b' in "book"

c
like 'c' in "cat" (mostly foreign words)

d
like 'd' in "dog", silent at end of syllable.

f
like 'f' in "face"

g
like 'g' in "good", but like 'y' in "yes" before i or j, silent at the end of some words

h
like 'h' in "hat", silent before j or v

j
like 'y' in "yes"

k
like 'k' in "keep", but like 'ch' in German "ich" before i or j (IPA [ç])

l
like 'l' in "late"

m
like 'm' in "mouse"

n
like 'n' in "nice"

p
like 'p' in "push"

q
like 'q' in "quick" (mostly foreign words)

r
like 'r' in "feather" (very soft, as in German) (many different variations ranging from Spanish to French sounding.)

s
like 's' in "sun" (not like 'z' in "zap")

t
like 't' in "top", silent at the end of some words

v
like 'v' in "viper"

w
like 'w' in "water" (mostly foreign words)

x
like 'x' in "box" (mostly foreign words), generally spelled with ks

z
like 'z' in "zipper" (officially), but usually pronounced like 's' in "sun" (mostly foreign words)

Diphthongs and two letter combinations

ei
like 'a' in "babe" (æ-i)

ai
like 'i' in "pine" (a-i)

au
like 'ou' in "mouse" (a-u), or like 'o' in "so" (æ-u)

oi
like 'oy' in "boy" (å-y)

øy
like 'ooey' in "gooey" (ø-y)

sj
like 'sh' in "shirt"

skj
like 'sh' in "shirt"

kj
like 'ch' in Scottish "loch" (but it's not a throat-sound), German "ich", very similar to Greek 'χ' IPA ç.

ng
like 'ng' in "long"

rs
like 'sh' in "shirt" (not a diphthong in the South or the West)

rt
like 'rt' in "art" (not a diphtong in the South or the West)

rn
like 'rn' in "burn" (not a diphtong in the South or the West)

ld
like 'll' in "ball" (makes vowels short, too)

nd
like 'nn' in "banner" (makes vowels short)

hj
like 'y' in "yes"

hv
like 'v' in "victory"

lj
like 'y' in "yes" (rare)

Exceptions

de
(the bokmål word, meaning "they"): like "dee" in "deer" (just as a whole word)

jeg
(the bokmål word, meaning "I"): like "Ya" in "Yale" or "yay"

og
(the bokmål and nynorsk word for "and"): like 'o' in "lord" (just as a whole word)

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