- The sj (English /ʃ/ or SH) sound – there are several clusters of letters that together produce the SH sound. The three most common ones are sj (sjakk, sjimpanse), skj (skje, skjorte) and sk (ski, skøyte).
- When /s/ follows /r/, the S sound becomes SH, even when the two are in separate words. For example: Det er så mange ting jeg har lyst til å gjøre. – here you pronounce ‘er så’ as ‘er shå’.
- /g/ is pronounced /j/ before –y, –i and –j – gift, gjøre, begynne
- The /h/ before /v/ and /j/ is silent – hva, hvem, hjelp, hjemme, hvit
- /o/ is often pronounced /å/ when it precedes two consonants – kommer, godt, også
- The /g/ at the end of words ending in -ig is silent – hyggelig, veldig, koselig
- After a long vowel the /d/ is usually silent – god, brød
- The /d/ in -ld and -nd is usually silent – kald, kaldt, vind, vinden
- Retroflex consonants (mostly in the Eastern dialects): this is one phenomenon that might seem a bit daunting, but once you’ve mastered it, you will sound so much more like a native. When pronouncing retroflex consonants, the tongue is curled bit upwards and backwards on the roof of the mouth.
- The word ikke often gets contracted to ‘kke in fast-paced speech. ‘Får ikke’ turns into få’kke, ‘vil ikke’ to vi’kke, ‘har ikke’ to ha’kke and so forth.
- If you’ve had the chance to meet and talk to Norwegians in person, you might have noticed a strange sound they make that seems like a breathing problem. This phenomenon is by no means a medical issue, but a linguistic phenomenon called a pulmonic ingressive – a sound created by an inhaled breath. Sometimes when saying ja or nei, Norwegians make this sound mostly to show that they agree with a statement and to encourage you to continue.
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