Æ, Ø and Å: the three extra Danish letters

The three extra Danish letters are æ, ø and å. They come after Z, in that order, so the Danish alphabet has 29 letters. Each one is a vowel of its own, not an a or an o with decoration. Tap a letter or a word to hear it.

What are the Danish letters æ, ø and å?

They are full letters with their own sounds and their own place in the alphabet. A Danish dictionary goes from A to Z and then on: Æ, Ø, Å. So a word that starts with å is not found next to words with a; it is at the very end of the book.

Their names are simply their sounds. When you spell on the phone, Danes add a name: Æ som i Ægir, Ø som i Øresund, Å som i Åse. That is from the traditional Danish spelling alphabet, and the rest of it is in the guide to the alphabet.

Æ: like the e in “bed”, but longer

Æ is one letter, not a plus e. Keep your lips wide, open your mouth a little, and hold the sound.

• æbleapple
• læseto read
• mælkmilk

The tricky part is that Danes also say this sound for many words written with e. The full story is in how to pronounce æ.

How do you pronounce Ø in Danish?

Say the Danish e (like “ay” in “day”, with no y at the end), keep your tongue still, and round your lips. That is ø. It is close to the u in British “burn”, with rounder lips. Next to r it is more open.

• sølake
• øreear
• grøngreen; a more open ø, next to r

The letter has its own page: the Danish ø.

Å: like “aw” in British “saw”

Round lips, the mouth a little open, and the tongue back. Not the o in “go”.

• påon
• åryear
• bådboat

More in how to pronounce å.

Test yourself: which one do you hear?

These pairs differ only in the vowel. Tap the first word, then the second, and listen for the difference. Then cover the English and try to hear which is which.

• sal · sælhall · seal (a and æ)
• se · søto see · lake (e and ø)
• sol · sålsun · sole (o and å)

The trick for each pair is in the lips. From e to ø, only the lips move. From o to å, the mouth opens a little.

Two letters that are also words

Two of them are whole words on their own, and you see them in place names all over Denmark:

• en øan island, as in Ærø and Fanø
• en åa small river, a stream

Aa or å? Old names

Before the spelling reform of 1948, å was written aa. Some place names and family names kept the old spelling. Aarhus and Aalborg are written with aa and said with å. In a Danish list, aa is sorted as å, at the end.

What are the letters in the Scandinavian alphabet?

Norwegian uses the same three letters as Danish, in the same order: æ, ø, å. Swedish has å, ä, ö instead, in that order: ä is the Swedish æ, and ö is the Swedish ø. So a Swede reading Danish meets two letters that look strange but sound familiar.

How do you get æ, ø and å on an English keyboard?

The easiest way is to add a Danish keyboard layout to your computer or phone. On a phone, you can also hold down a, o or e to get them. Without Danish letters, write ae, oe and aa, which is also how they are written in e-mail and web addresses: Søren becomes soeren. The guide to the Danish keyboard has every step.

Questions people ask

How many letters are in the Danish alphabet?

29: the 26 you know from English, and then æ, ø and å.

Is ø the same as ö?

It is the same sound, written in two ways. Danish and Norwegian write ø; Swedish, German and Finnish write ö.

Can I write ae instead of æ?

Yes, when you cannot type æ, for example in an e-mail address. In normal Danish text, use the real letter.

What language family is Danish from?

Danish is a North Germanic language, a sister of Norwegian and Swedish, and a cousin of English, German and Dutch.