How to pronounce å in Danish

To pronounce å in Danish, round your lips and open your mouth a little, like the “aw” in British “saw”. That is the sound in på, år and båd. It is more open than the Danish o, and keeping the two apart is the whole trick. Tap any word to hear it, and try the word pairs below.

What is the Danish a with a circle?

Å is a letter of its own, not an a with a decoration. It is the last of the 29 letters in the Danish alphabet, after æ and ø, so in a dictionary, words with å come at the very end. Its name is just the sound, and on the phone Danes spell it Å som i Åse.

The little circle is called a ring, and the letter came into Danish spelling in 1948. Before that, Danish wrote the sound as two letters, aa, and you still see that today. More about it below.

How to pronounce å in Danish, step by step

1. Round your lips, as if you were going to say “oh”, but do not push them forward too much.
2. Open your jaw a little, more than for an “oh”. The space in your mouth is bigger.
3. Keep your tongue low and back.
4. Do not glide. English “oh” moves at the end, towards a “w”. The Danish å stays in one place from start to finish.

If you speak British English, the “aw” in “saw”, “law” or “paw” is close. In American English, many people say those words with a flatter vowel, so think of a rounded, held “aw” instead. In the course, we use a picture to remember it: a bear’s paw. The Danish på (on) sounds just like English “paw”.

• påon
• åryear
• bådboat
• blåblue
• gåto go, to walk
• ståto stand
• fåto get

Å or o? Listen to the difference

This is the pair that matters. Both have round lips. For o, the mouth is almost closed and the lips are tight, like “oh” without the “w” at the end. For å, the mouth is more open. These pairs change only that vowel, and the meaning changes with it.

Say the o word, then open your mouth a little and say the å word. If the two sound the same, open more. Your lips stay round all the time.

Where do you hear å without seeing it?

Danish spelling does not always show the sound. A short o very often sounds like å. You see an o, you hear an å, as in ond (evil, mean). So if a word with o sounds strange to you, it may be the å sound.

It goes the other way, too: a long o is closer to a u. That is why many learners say the Danish o is “between” English sounds. Learn the words one at a time, and listen to how Danes say them.

Aa or å: Aarhus, Aalborg and old names

Before 1948, the sound was written aa. Many town names and family names kept the old spelling, and they are still said with å: Aarhus, Aalborg. The city of Aarhus went back to the spelling with aa in 2011, so you will see both Århus and Aarhus in older texts.

Without Danish letters on your keyboard, you write aa for å, for example in an email address. In alphabetical lists, Danish puts aa together with å at the end of the alphabet, so in a Danish list, Aalborg comes after the words with z.

Is å the same in Norwegian and Swedish?

The letter is the same, but the sound is not quite. In Norwegian and Swedish, the long å is usually said with the lips more closed, closer to the Danish o. The Danish å is more open. So if you learned å in Swedish or Norwegian first, open your mouth a little more in Danish.

The other letters people ask about belong to other languages: ä and ö are Swedish, German and Finnish (Danish uses æ and ø for the same kinds of sounds), and ã and á are Portuguese and Spanish or Icelandic. Danish has none of them.

Test yourself: o or å?

Say the word, decide, then open the answer.

Is the vowel in sol closer to “oh” or “aw”?

Closer to “oh”: the mouth is almost closed. sol.

Is the vowel in sål closer to “oh” or “aw”?

Closer to “aw”, with the mouth more open. sål.

How do you say Aalborg?

With å at the start, as if it were written Ålborg: Aalborg.

How do you type å?

On a Danish keyboard, å has its own key. On an English Mac keyboard, press Option and a; add Shift for Å. On Windows, hold Alt and type 0229 on the number pad (0197 for Å). On a phone, hold down the a key. Without Danish letters, write aa.

Questions people ask

Is å pronounced like o?

No, not the Danish o. Å is more open. It is close to “aw” in British “saw”, while the Danish o is closer to “oh” with tight lips.

What does å mean on its own?

In Danish, å is also a word: a small river, a stream. Many place names end in it.

How do Danes spell the letter å on the phone?

They say Å som i Åse, using a name that starts with the letter, as with all the letters.