#22 A, E, and Æ pronunciation... and some geometry revisions [uttale] [pronunciation]

In this pronunciation-focused episode, we break down three connected but distinct Norwegian vowel sounds: A, E, and Æ. Rather than getting caught up in complex terminology, we use visual imagery and physical awareness to help you feel the difference between these sounds. The beauty of these particular vowels? Your tongue gets to relax completely – it's all about your lips and jaw!

For the A sound, think of a vertical rectangle – open your mouth downward without smiling. When pronouncing E, imagine a horizontal rectangle – slightly open with a smile. And for the challenging Æ sound (that letter that doesn't exist in English), visualize a perfect square with your mouth – combining elements of both A and E.

We also explore an important distinction between letters and sounds in Norwegian, noting that while the letter Æ is always pronounced as Æ, the letter E can sometimes be pronounced as Æ depending on the word.

Ready to practice? I've made a "song" with the melody of a Norwegian children's song to help you distinguish between these sounds in a fun, memorable way. 

Give it a try and feel the difference in your mouth! ;) 

Chapters

• 0:00 Introduction with Norwegian Song
• 1:03 Focusing on Lips and Jaw
• 1:48 Pronouncing the A Sound
• 3:34 Mastering the E Sound
• 5:21 Combining to Create Æ Sound
• 8:41 Final Practice and Song

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:16

It is A E A, a E, a, A, e A A E.

Speaker 2: 0:27

A. It is time for a new pronunciation episode, and what is better than starting with a song? If you have kids in kindergarten in Norway, you might have heard that melody before Tommelfinger, tommelfinger, hvor er du. The reason why I wanted to start with this song is because A, e and A are three sounds that are. They are connected somehow, and the thing that they all have in common is that when pronouncing them, your focus should be on your lips and on how open your mouth is. Your tongue can relax, don't worry about it, just let it lay down in your mouth and don't think about how it should move. Just let it lay flat. Your lips and your jaw will do the whole work. So a lot of people struggle with all of them, but maybe especially the last one, the A, which is actually a mix between A and E. So A and E A is the letter A, e is the letter E, and A is a letter that you don't find in the English alphabet, but if you look at it closely can you see what it is made of. If you look closely, you'll see that it looks like an A and an E put together. So let's first look at A and E and then we're going to combine them and make A in the end.

Speaker 2: 2:28

So first letter A or A in the English alphabet A when you pronounce A, you want to open your jaw, to just open your mouth vertically and let your smiling muscles relax. You're not going to smile here. You're not going to right, say ah, ah, that's it, it's super simple. Just open your jaw and nothing else. Tongue length, length, flat, no smiling, even though you want to don't smile. Ah, even though you want to don't smile A.

Speaker 2: 3:26

Okay, now that you've done that, we're going to go to the E or E in English alphabet E. This is the opposite, of course. You're going to open your jaw, but not as much, just a little bit, and you want to smile. So here you imagine that you open your mouth horizontally. Imagine two kinds of squares One that is vertically long for ah, so your mouth is shaped like a long, vertical square, a, and then, when you say e, you want that square to become horizontal e. You're still open because or else it wouldn't be a square. You need to have some space. Eee, and you smile. Eee, relax your tongue, because if you don't relax your tongue, if you move your tongue forward, suddenly the e becomes e, e, e, e, e, e. So the only difference between e and e is that when you say e, you're pushing your tongue up to the palate and forward. You don't want that, so relax your tongue up to the palate and forward. You don't want that, so relax your tongue and just say eh eh, eh, Like in there here,

Speaker 2: 5:14

Okay, you can do that. Now how do we combine these two? So you want to open just like with ah, and then you try to smile. So basically, ah is a smiling ah and this square is had the same length on all sides. So imagine that it's a. What is it called? Quadrat? What's that in english? Four square? Huh, yeah, four square. So basically a square with where the sides are the same length. So it's not not vertical, it's not horizontal, it's same same, like a square meter. Right, all the sides have the same length, one meter. Not your mouth that would be. Then you would have to have a very big mouth, but same size, same length of the sides.

Speaker 1: 6:14

So a A.

Speaker 2: 6:21

So, to practice, let's make an A and then E and then A in the end, Okay. So you can see that the last one is a combination of the two. So let's start with A, a and then make, and then you open more together, together. Okay, you really have to, you really have to focus on your mouth here, or else you're not going to get it right. Okay, of course we do not. We do not necessarily open that much when we speak, but the principle is the same. Just think about a four square, a like-sided square. When you say a A Like Ha, what, ha, ha, ha, what Ha. And in Norwegian, when we say here and there, we actually say had and dad, with an, a sound. So a is more open than e.

Speaker 2: 7:33

A e, a, e. The only difference between e and a is that I open my mouth more basically, just like when I say a, yeah. So the sound a is not necessarily the letter a, very often the e, the letter e, e in English, english is actually pronounced a. So you have to differentiate between the sound a, which is represented by the letter a, and how different letters are pronounced in a sentence, in a word, and that can vary. So even though you see the letter E, it might actually be pronounced A, but the A. The good thing with A, with the letter A, is that the letter A is always pronounced A, whereas the letter E can be pronounced A as well. So it's a very useful sound to know. Okay, let's do the song again. Are you ready? One, two A.

Speaker 1: 8:46

A E A, a E A, a E A.

Speaker 2: 9:03

How did it go? If you didn't manage to do that, I want you to do it again until you get it Without having to think Okay, lykke til.

Speaker 1: 9:29

Vi høres.