Basics & Pronunciation

Norwegian (Norsk) has two official written languages: Bokmål (the more common, similar to Danish) and Nynorsk (closer to Old Norse, prevalent in Western Norway). For travelers, Bokmål is completely sufficient.

Special Letters

• Æ/æ: Like “ä" in German
• Ø/ø: Like “ö" in German
• Å/å: Like an open “o" (similar to the “o" in “vor")

Pronunciation Tips

• kj: Like the “ch" in “ich" (e.g., kjøtt = meat)
• skj/sk: Like “sch" (e.g., ski = pronounced “schi")
• j: Like “j" in “ja" (e.g., fjord = pronounced “fjuhr")
• d: Often silent at the end of a word (e.g., god = pronounced “guh")