The Danish alphabet: 29 letters with audio

The Danish alphabet has 29 letters: the same 26 as English, plus æ, ø and å at the end. The letters look the same, but many of their names do not sound the same, and that is what trips you up when you spell your name on the phone. Tap any letter below to hear its Danish name.

All 29 letters with their Danish names

The middle column is the name of the letter in the simple spelling I use with my students. Vowels are A, E, I, O, U, Y, Æ, Ø and Å: nine of them, which is one reason Danish has so many vowel sounds.

C, Q, W, X and Z are mostly used in words and names from other languages: computer, quiz, weekend, taxa, zoo. Danish words write ks instead of x: ekstra.

Is the Danish alphabet the same as English?

Almost. The first 26 letters are the same and come in the same order, and then Danish adds three: æ, ø and å, in that order. In a Danish dictionary or phone book, a name starting with Å comes after Z, not next to A.

The difference you will notice is the names. Five letters catch English speakers every time:

• E is said e, like the “ay” in “day”. The English letter E sounds like the Danish I.
• I is said i, like “ee” in “see”, not “eye”.
• J is said jåd, and in words it always sounds like the English y: ja, jeg.
• R is said ær. The Danish r is not rolled and not English: it is made far back in the throat, a little like a soft French r.
• Y is always a vowel in Danish, the German ü. Say “ee”, keep your tongue still, and round your lips as if to whistle: ny, by.

G (ge, not “jee”), H (hå, not “aitch”) and Z (sæt, not “zed”) are the next three to watch.

How do you pronounce æ, ø and å?

They are letters of their own, not a and o with decorations, and each is one vowel sound.

• æbleapple. Æ is like the e in “bed”, held a little longer.
• mælkmilk
• sølake. Ø: say the Danish e, keep your tongue still, and round your lips.
• øreear
• påon. Å is like “aw” in British “saw”, with round lips.
• åryear

The trick for ø is the same as for y: the tongue stays where it is for a plain vowel, and only the lips change. Say se, then round your lips without moving anything else, and you get sø.

Writing without æ, ø and å

On a keyboard without Danish letters, æ is written ae, ø is oe, and å is aa. Søren becomes Soeren in an email address. You also see aa in old place names: Aarhus and Aalborg are still said with å.

Spelling your name in Danish

You will spell your name at the doctor’s, at the bank and on the phone, so this is where the letter names pay off. Danes spell with the letters in a row, and on a bad line they add a name for each letter, from the traditional Danish spelling alphabet:

• A som i AnnaA as in Anna
• B som i BernhardB as in Bernhard
• H som i HansH as in Hans
• J som i JohanJ as in Johan
• Ø som i ØresundØ as in Øresund

A useful sentence to go with it: Hvordan staver man det? (How do you spell that?)

Questions people ask

How many letters are in the Danish alphabet?

29: A to Z, then Æ, Ø and Å. Norwegian has the same 29 letters in the same order.

Does Danish have 27 vowels?

No, Danish has nine vowel letters. What people mean is the number of vowel sounds, which is much higher than nine, because each letter can be long or short and changes next to r. Count the letters, learn the sounds by ear.

How do you pronounce ø in Danish?

Say the Danish e (like “ay” without the y), keep your tongue still, and round your lips. It is close to the vowel in British “burn”, with rounder lips. Next to r it opens up a little, as in grøn.

Why is w called dobbelt-ve?

Because dobbelt means double: it is a double v. The letter is only used in names and foreign words, so you mostly need its name to spell an email address.

How to learn the alphabet

Do it in this order: the five tricky names above, then your own name, then æ, ø and å. Say your full name letter by letter until you can do it without thinking. The pronunciation guide takes the vowels and the soft d further.

In the free course, the topic “Alfabetet” has all 29 letters as keys you tap, a “Test yourself” mode, the vowel pairs that only differ in one sound (fire and fyre), your own name spelled out, and listening exercises that give you a hint when you get a letter wrong, not the answer.