Spelling: double consonants and capital letters
Norwegian is spelled almost the way it sounds, but a few rules are worth knowing. The main ones are about double consonants and when to use a capital letter.
We teach Bokmål, the written standard most people in Norway use.
In short: a short vowel gets a double consonant (takk, glass), but never a double m at the end of a word (rom, hjem). Days, months and nationalities take a small letter.
What is this about?
Spelling is about writing words the way they're supposed to look. It matters when you write a job application, a message to the kindergarten or answer a test. Small mistakes don't make a text impossible to understand, but they weaken the impression it makes.
The good news is that Norwegian is spelled almost the way it sounds. The main rule is about vowel length: after a short vowel you often write a double consonant, after a long vowel just one. «Takk» (thanks) has a short a, «tak» (roof) has a long a. «Katt» (cat) has a short a, «mat» (food) a long one. The second big rule is about capital letters: days, months and nationalities take a small letter: «mandag» (Monday), «januar» (January), «norsk» (Norwegian).
English is almost the opposite. You write Monday, January and English with a capital, and spelling often ignores pronunciation (though, through). Norwegian is far more logical. Once you can hear the difference between short and long vowels, you can spell most words correctly, and it helps your pronunciation too, because «tak» and «takk» mean completely different things.
Rules
- After a short vowel the consonant is doubled: takk (thanks), glass, katt (cat), hopp (jump), full.
- After a long vowel there is just one: tak (roof), mat (food), bok (book), hus (house).
- Words ending in m have only one m: rom (room), hjem (home), lam, dum (stupid), fram. Add an ending and the double m comes back: rommet, hjemme, dumme.
- Some small words have one consonant even though the vowel is short: han, hun, den, men, til, vil, skal.
- When a verb gets -te in the past tense, one consonant drops: spille – spilte, kjenne – kjente, begynne – begynte.
- Small letter: days and months (mandag, januar), holidays (jul, påske), languages and nationalities (norsk, spansk, en polakk).
- Capital letter: names of people, places and countries (Kari, Bergen, Norge, Polen) and the first word of a sentence.
- hjem or hjemme? hjem = movement (Jeg går hjem – I'm going home), hjemme = place (Jeg er hjemme – I'm at home).
- og or å? og joins things (brød og ost), å goes before an infinitive (å spise). Both are pronounced the same way.
- Compounds are written as one word: hyttetur (cabin trip), barnehage, røykfritt (smoke-free). Write 'røyk fritt' and it means 'smoke freely'!
Typical mistake: capitalising like in English – Mandag, Januar, Norsk. In Norwegian they are all lowercase: mandag, januar, norsk.
Examples
- Takk for at du hjalp meg med flyttingen!Thanks for helping me with the move!
- Rommet mitt i kollektivet er lite, men lyst.My room in the shared flat is small but bright.
- Jeg er hjemme i kveld, men i morgen reiser jeg hjem til Polen.I'm at home tonight, but tomorrow I'm going home to Poland.
- Agnieszka er polsk, men hun snakker veldig godt norsk.Agnieszka is Polish, but she speaks very good Norwegian.
- Vi planlegger en hyttetur til Hemsedal i påsken.We're planning a cabin trip to Hemsedal at Easter.
- Kurset begynner mandag 5. januar.The course starts on Monday 5 January.
- Hun spilte fotball da hun bodde i Stavanger.She played football when she lived in Stavanger.
- Glasset falt i gulvet, men det gikk ikke i stykker.The glass fell on the floor, but it didn't break.