How many letters are in the Norwegian alphabet?

29: a to z, then æ, ø and å, in that order. Accented letters such as é, è, ê, ó, ò and ô are used but are optional and do not count as letters of their own.

When did Norwegian start writing å instead of aa?

In 1917. The spelling reform of that year made å official in place of aa. Geographic names follow the new spelling, but many family names kept the old Aa.

Why do some Norwegians still spell their name with Aa?

Family names are inherited and each bearer chooses, so Aagaard is still far more common than Ågård. Given names changed: more than 12,000 Norwegian men are named Håkon and about 2,900 Haakon.

Why does Aaron come after Zorro in a Norwegian list?

Norwegian sorting treats aa as the letter å, the last of the alphabet. Software set to Norwegian therefore files Aaron after Zorro unless someone corrects it by hand.

Did any Norwegian place name have three or four a's in a row?

Yes, before 1917. The river Haaa is now written Håa, and Blaaaasen, the blue ridge, is now Blååsen.

Where are æ, ø and å on a Norwegian keyboard?

Å is to the right of P. Ø is to the right of L, and Æ is to the right of Ø, which is the reverse of their order in the alphabet.

How do I type @, { and $ on a Norwegian keyboard?

@ is AltGr+2, { and } are AltGr+7 and AltGr+0, and [ and ] are AltGr+8 and AltGr+9. Shift+4 gives ¤, so $ is AltGr+4; € is AltGr+5 or AltGr+E.

What happens if I type a instead of å?

Often a different word. hår is hair but har means has, and måte means way while mate means to feed.

What is the difference between Bokmål and Nynorsk?

They are the two official written standards. Bokmål grew out of written Danish and the speech of the towns; Nynorsk comes from Ivar Aasen’s study of the dialects. I is jeg in Bokmål and eg in Nynorsk; not is ikke or ikkje.

A linguist born in 1813 at Åsen in Ørsta, on the west coast, who travelled Norway to study its dialects. His grammar of 1848 and dictionary of 1850 founded Landsmål, renamed Nynorsk in 1929. He died in 1896, before the 1917 reform, and his name is still written Aasen.

Who was Knud Knudsen?

A schoolteacher who, from the 1850s until his death in 1895, moved Danish spelling toward the educated speech of Norwegian towns, because pupils struggled to write a language they did not speak. He is often called the father of Bokmål.

Why is sne wrong in Bokmål?

The 1981 decision let most traditional Riksmål spellings back into Bokmål, but not a set of banner words such as sne and efter. The official Bokmål dictionary lists only snø (snow) and etter (after).

Why is it gate and not gade?

The 1907 reform replaced the soft Danish consonants with hard Norwegian ones: gade became gate (street), kage became kake (cake) and bog became bok (book).

Is there a standard spoken Norwegian?

No. Any dialect is accepted as correct spoken Norwegian, and dialects are heard in teaching, broadcasting and parliament. The Nynorsk movement’s motto since the 1970s has been speak dialect, write Nynorsk.

How many ways do Norwegians say I?

Bokmål writes jeg and Nynorsk eg. In speech, most of the west, Trøndelag and the north say e(g) or æ(g), the Oslo area and the Swedish border say je or jei, and parts of Romsdal say i.

Can a .no web address contain æ, ø and å?

Yes, since 2004, when Norid added 23 characters to .no names, æ, ø and å among them, so that every official written language of Norway could be written in a domain name.

Norwegian Bokmål Keyboard OnlineNorsk tastatur

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Norwegian is written in two official standards, and both were built in the 19th century. After the union with Denmark, which ran from 1380 to 1814, Norwegians still wrote Danish. Two men answered in opposite ways. Schoolteacher Knud Knudsen, often called the father of Bokmål, moved Danish spelling step by step toward the educated speech of Norwegian towns. Ivar Aasen, born in 1813 at Åsen in Ørsta, travelled the country recording dialects and published a grammar in 1848 and a dictionary in 1850, the base of Landsmål. On 12 May 1885 Parliament made the two standards official and equal. The 1907 reform swapped Danish soft consonants for hard ones, so gade became gate, kage kake and bog bok. The 1917 reform brought å in place of aa. In 1929 Riksmål was renamed Bokmål and Landsmål became Nynorsk. Reforms in 1938 and 1959 pushed both toward one merged samnorsk; a parents’ campaign from 1951 fought back, the 1981 decision let most traditional forms return, the samnorsk goal was dropped on 13 December 2002, and the 2005 reform ended the split between main and secondary forms. About 90 percent of Norwegians now write Bokmål and 10 to 15 percent Nynorsk, and the Language Act in force since 1 January 2022 calls the two equal.

Bokmål lets the writer choose. The official dictionary gives two forms for many words: the book is boka or boken, because every feminine noun may also take the masculine ending. Nynorsk, the second standard, keeps the feminine. The choice has limits: the 1981 decision readmitted old Riksmål spellings except a set of banner words, so snø and etter are Bokmål while sne and efter are not in the dictionary at all. Speech is freer still. There is no official spoken standard, and any dialect is accepted as correct Norwegian: the word for I is jeg in Bokmål and eg in Nynorsk, and dialects say e, æ, je or i.

Norwegian keyboards give æ, ø and å keys of their own. On the Norwegian layout, the Windows default for both Bokmål and Nynorsk, Å sits to the right of P, Ø to the right of L and Æ to the right of Ø, so the keys run Ø then Æ while the alphabet runs æ, ø, å. Next to Å is a dead key for ¨, ^ and ~. Symbols move: @ is AltGr+2, the braces and brackets sit on AltGr+7 to AltGr+0, Shift+4 gives ¤, so $ needs AltGr+4, and € is AltGr+5 or AltGr+E. The backslash has its own key left of Backspace, and | and § share the key left of 1. Without these keys, Norwegians fall back on ae, oe and aa, and a Norwegian standard recommends plain a, o and a for e-mail addresses. Plain letters can change the word: hår is hair but har means has, and måte is a way while mate means to feed. Web addresses caught up in 2004, when Norid added 23 characters to .no names, æ, ø and å among them, so every official written language of Norway could be used. Sorting software set to Norwegian treats aa as å, which puts Aaron after Zorro. The state broadcaster NRK must publish at least 25 percent of its content in Nynorsk. This page shows the 29 letters, with é, ò, ô and the « » quotation marks in the Special popup.

Norwegian Bokmål Keyboard OnlineNorsk tastatur

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jeg · eg, ikke · ikkje

Aa became Å

boka or boken

snø, never sne

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Norwegian Bokmål Keyboard OnlineNorsk tastatur

One click to insert — or copy straight to clipboard

How To Use

Type

Accents & quotes

Copy & paste

Norwegian Bokmål Keyboard for Any App

Snapchat

WhatsApp

Instagram

TikTok

Free Norwegian Bokmål Keyboard Online.Type from any device — no download, no install.

One Language, Two Written Standards

jeg · eg, ikke · ikkje

Aa became Å

boka or boken

snø, never sne

Frequently AskedQuestions

Free Keyboards, All Online

Free Norwegian Bokmål Keyboard Online.
Type from any device — no download, no install.

Frequently Asked
Questions