The Norwegian Alphabet and æ, ø, å

The Norwegian alphabet has 29 letters: the 26 you already know from English, plus three extra vowels — æ, ø, å — that come at the very end. This page is about the letters as written symbols: what they are, how they are ordered, and how to type them. How they sound belongs to the Pronunciation group (see pronunciation/vowels-overview). The headline facts are simple but genuinely surprising to English eyes, so we will be precise about them.

The full alphabet, in order

The order is the standard Latin a–z, followed by æ, ø, å:

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Æ Ø Å

That final stretch is the part to memorise: after z come æ, then ø, then å — in exactly that order. This is not decorative trivia. It determines dictionary order, the order of names in an index or phone book, crossword conventions, and how any sorted Norwegian list is arranged.

Æ, ø, å are single letters — not letter combinations

This is the conceptual hurdle for English speakers, and it has practical consequences. Æ is one letter, not "a" plus "e." Ø is one letter, not "o" plus "e." Å is one letter, not "double a." They have their own slots in the alphabet, their own keys on a Norwegian keyboard, and their own vowel values (covered on the pronunciation pages).

Because they are real letters with their own sort position at the end, alphabetised Norwegian looks "wrong" to an English reader. A word in Å- does not file near the top with the A-words; it files dead last, after everything. Consider this mini-list put into correct Norwegian alphabetical order:

Notice that ærlig, øre and åpen come after zoologi, even though, to English instincts, "honest," "ear" and "open" feel like they belong near A, E and O. They don't — Æ, ø, å are end-of-alphabet letters.

C, Q, W, X, Z — the borrowed letters

Five letters of the Latin alphabet are technically Norwegian letters but appear almost exclusively in loanwords, names, and abbreviations. Native Norwegian vocabulary essentially does without them:

• c — survives mainly in names and loans (camping, Cecilie); the native /k/ sound is written k (katt "cat," kafé "café"). When a Latin c-word is nativised, the c is rewritten as k before a back vowel and as s before a front vowel — so Latin circus becomes sirkus "circus."
• q — practically only in names (Quisling) and a few loans; native /kv/ is written kv (kvinne "woman," kveld "evening").
• w — names and recent loans (watt, web, William); historically often replaced by v.
• x — names and loans (taxi is usually written drosje natively, or taxi as a loan); native /ks/ is written ks (eksamen "exam," seks "six").
• z — names and loans (zoom, pizza); native /s/ is written s.

The takeaway: if a Norwegian word contains c, q, w, x or z, it is very likely a borrowing or a proper name. Native words reach for k, kv, v, ks, s instead.

Å and the old digraph "aa"

The letter å is a relative newcomer in print. It was officially adopted in 1917 to replace the older digraph "aa," which had spelled the same sound for centuries. You will still meet "aa" in three places, so it is worth recognising:

1. Surnames, which often preserve historical spelling. The linguist Ivar Aasen kept his "aa"; today the same sound elsewhere is written å.
2. Place names, e.g. Aalesund (now usually Ålesund), where the older form lingers on signs, logos, and tradition.
3. Pre-1917 texts, where everything that is now "å" appears as "aa."

In sorting, modern å files at the end (after z), but the historical digraph aa in a name like Aasen is conventionally treated as å for alphabetisation too — which is why Aasen can sort at the very end alongside the Å-names, not at the start with the A's. (Usage varies by index; many modern systems now sort literal "aa" as two a's, so you may see both.)

How to type æ, ø, å

A practical necessity, since you can't write Norwegian without them.

The cleanest long-term fix is to switch to a Norwegian keyboard layout, which gives all three their own dedicated keys to the right of the letter block. For occasional use, Alt-codes (Windows) or Option-key combinations (macOS) work. There is a fuller, platform-by-platform walkthrough on its own page (see writing/typing-special-letters).

The fallback digraphs — ae for æ, oe for ø, aa for å — appear in URLs, old computer systems, email addresses, and any context that can't handle the real letters. They are a last resort, never correct in proper writing: Tromsø may appear as tromsoe in a web address, but the word is spelled Tromsø.

Common Mistakes

The errors English speakers make most often with the alphabet.

Key Takeaways

• The Norwegian alphabet has 29 letters: a–z plus æ, ø, å, which come last, in that order.
• Æ, ø, å are single letters, with their own sort positions and keyboard keys — not digraphs.
• Because they sort after z, alphabetised Norwegian lists look "wrong" to English eyes (an Å-word files at the very end).
• C, q, w, x, z appear almost only in loanwords and names; native words use k, kv, v, ks, s.
• Å replaced the old digraph "aa" in 1917, still seen in surnames (Aasen) and place names (Aalesund).
• Learn to type them via a Norwegian layout or Alt-codes; the ae/oe/aa fallbacks are for URLs and legacy systems only.