4 Pronunciation

Norwegian consonants

The Norwegian alphabet contains twenty consonant letters:

B C D F G H J K L M N P Q R S T V W X Z

The letters < c, q, w, x, z > are quite rare and mostly used in loanwords (camping, quiz, watt, xylofon, pizza).

Norwegian letter	English reference
b	Like < b > in buy
c	Before front vowels < i, e, y > cf. /s/ in circus
c	Before back vowels < a, o, u > cf. /k/ in camping
d	Like < d > in dog
f	Like < f > in fine
g	Like < g > in girl
h	Like < h > in hat
j	Like < y > in yes
k	Like < k > in kite
l	Like < l > in live
m	Like < m > in map
n	Like < n > in now
p	Like < p > in pen
q	In Norwegian, < qu > is pronounced as /kv/, cf. quiz - /kvis/
r	Like Scottish r. The tip of the tongue taps the alveolar ridge.
s	Like < s > in see
t	Like < t > in tea
v	Like < v > in violin
w	Like < v > in violin
x	Like < x > - /ks/ in tax
z	Pronounced as /s/, cf. zoom - /su:m/

In Norwegian, several consonants may occur as so-called mute or silent letters; which means they are written, but not pronounced.

1) < d > is silent in < ld, nd, rd > and may be silent in the end of syllables after a vowel:
< kald >	/'kɑl/	cold
< Trondheim >	/'tronheim/	Trondheim
< bord >	/'buːr/	table
< med >	/'meː/	with
2) < g > is silent in < gj > and in adjectives ending in < ig >:
< gjøre >	/'jøːre/	do
< hyggelig >	/'hygeli/	nice
3) < h > is silent in < hj, hv >:
< hjelpe >	/'jelpe/	help
< hvor >	/'vur/	where
4) < t > is silent in definite form singular of neuter nouns:
< flyet >	/'flyːe/	the plane
5) < t > is also silent in one important word, < det >:
< det >	/'deː/	it, that