#43 The rolled Norwegian R - how and when to pronounce it [uttale] [pronunciation]

The Norwegian R is the sound everyone worries about, and it turns out the worry is pointed in the wrong direction. We talk through what many learners are actually hearing in everyday Norwegian: a light tap R that barely “rolls” at all, often so subtle it can resemble a D. From there, we zoom out to the bigger truth about Norwegian dialects, including the skarre-r (the French-style R) in parts of Western and Southern Norway and the more rolled variant you can find around Ålesund. 

Then we get practical and a little nerdy with Norwegian phonetics. When R collides with consonants made in the same area of the mouth, especially D and T, many speakers don’t pronounce a clean R. Instead, the next consonant changes shape: the tongue moves slightly back toward the hard palate and the sound takes on an American R-like quality. 

Finally, we connect this to real learner pain points, like hearing tense endings where present tense adds a final R but spoken Norwegian may drop it. If you’re an English speaker (and especially if you’re British), we talk about why that can scramble your ear. Subscribe for more Norwegian language learning tips, share this with a friend learning Norwegian, and leave a review. What word or sentence makes the Norwegian R hardest for you right now?

Transcript

Why Norwegian Has More Than One R

Silje 0:14

Err the Norwegian R is not one Norwegian R. But the one you've learned is probably this one. Er or at least the one you're trying to learn. It's called Rulad, but it's actually not really rolling. It's just tapping one time the palate. If you compare it to the Spanish R, it's very subtle. It sounds almost like a D. imagine that you're saying D but just using the tip of your tongue, and you're not really blocking the air at any moment. The air coming out, you let it pass, and you let your tongue go down from the palate. So there's always air coming out when you say ed, because even when you are touching the palate, there is air coming out on the sides of your tongue. If you change the R with a D in the words you say, it sounds very similar to Words that start with a D before the R can be easier. Just imagine saying ta da ta da and then you say it very quickly Ta da ta ta ta ta ta ta ta ta like Of course you don't have to pronounce the R that way. You can pronounce it in the French way if you want. Skar Skarr

The Oslo Tap R Explained

Silje 2:21

or you can pronounce it as it's done in Ålesund and around there. I'm not gonna pretend that I can pronounce the R, the Ålesund R correctly, but it's it's more pronounced. It's it rolls a little bit compared to the one you hear in Oslo. So in most Norway you will hear the Rullad no matter the dialect. It's really in the west and southern part that people use the French R, skarre-r, and then in all the sun and around there that you hear you will hear the a little bit thicker, uh more rolled kind of r. So no matter where you live, you probab there's a bigger chance that the roulard will be more natural. And when it comes to that r and also the uh and also the allison rolled r, there are things to know. You cannot pronounce the r all the time. If you do that, you will hurt yourself. Not because people get angry at you, but because it's it's hard to say it. It's super hard. Because when the er collide with other sounds that are pronounced exactly the same place as ida, it's super hard to pronounce. So so people don't. For instance, you've probably noticed that we say we don't say Hvordan går det? Hvordan går det?. Try to say that quickly ten times. Hvordan går det? I can't. Hvordan går det? I uh it no, it's not possible. When you have odd and odd when you have R and D together, suddenly something weird happens to the R. It's not pronounced anymore the same place as you think it would be. Instead, what you're gonna do is you're gonna pr pronounce only the D but in a modified way. So the D will have like an American R to it. So instead of pronouncing dh d right behind the teeth, as you normally do, touch the tip of your tongue right behind your teeth. You're gonna move your tongue maybe one centimeter behind. You're gonna touch the palate, you know where where it starts to arch, where the hard palate

R Collisions With D And T

Silje 5:05

starts. And that's how you pronounce the duh sound. You see it sounds it's very similar to err du. So instead of saying voodun you're gonna say voodun voodun and same thing happens later in the sentence when you have gur de We're not in the same word anymore, but it doesn't matter. When you speak you don't take a break between each word. So it doesn't matter if the collision comes inside of a word or between words. So here as well you're gonna say rh no r sound whatsoever. Hvor dan går det? Hvordan går det? No R at all. Same thing with R and T T is pronounced the same place as D and So whenever you have a R and T together, you're gonna do the same movement of your tongue instead of saying you're gonna say tra tradu vat Had Har du vært her? Have you been here? Har du vært her? In that sentence there were three R's but I only pronounced the last one "her". "Har du vært her? What else do we have? Yeah, when you have R and L T D all pronounced the same place the same thing happens. "Farlig" I don't say "faRli" "faLi" dangerous [faLi] or "ærlig" [æ-Li] Honest I almost forgot to mention the N the R before an N will also have the same impact on the pronunciation. So if you have an R in front of an N, instead of pronouncing the N with the tip of your tongue right before your

R Before L And N

Silje 7:55

upper teeth, you will put it a little bit farther back and it will become a little bit more how can I say thicker? Like for instance Arne Arne which is a typical male name. Very often also the N the this sound you'll get in in endings of words if it is definite form with an E N ending. So for instance for instance when you say the father faren but when you say it quickly you will pronounce it [fa-N]. So the E disappears and you will get one syllable that is just n so it would be fa if you don't get the n right, the n right, then it sounds like a swearing word. So um [fa-N] fwith the [N] sound. Another example of where this n sound comes, where you you cannot see it uh in the written language, but actually "den" or "han" is very often just pronounced [n], you only hear the n sound when you find it in the end of a sentence, like the object of your sentence. So for instance, if I want to say "I see him" or "I see it", depending on the context, instead of saying "jeg ser den" or "jeg ser han" , I would say "jeg ser'n" [jei-se-N] "jeg ser'n" is pronounced by itself in one syllable "jeg ser'n". Otherwise there are not many words where you have have R and N directly after each other and that's probably why I forgot that. There are some but not so many, not as many as with D and T and L. Alright. And then another thing, if you have

When R Makes S Sound Like Sh

Silje 10:40

an S is also pronounced the same place. We don't do exactly the same thing, but something similar.

unknown 10:49

Shh.

Silje 10:51

Shh because S never touches, never touches the palate. It floats above it, and you're gonna pull the tongue farther back and still not gonna touch the palate with the tip of your tongue. So s becomes sh. So you see, you are actually doing the same thing, but in this case the letter the the tip of your tongue never touches the palate. So R and S is not Nurisk Nur no, sorry, R and S is not it is but sh like sh in English same sound. Listen to this sentence Hardu Vartponosh Kush Have you been to a Norwegian course? Try to repeat it. " Har du vært på norskkurs? [ha-Du-væT-på-nåsh-kush] In this sentence there were actually four Rs four R, but none of them were pronounced. If I read it according to the book, I would say something like this "HaR du væRt På noRsk kuRs" Kurs and I notice when I say that I then I really feel that I have to force the R's. I have to roll them and make them more stronger in order to be able to pronounce them. If I say it quickly, it's super hard. Hard hard Harduvatponors

Why R Disappears Between Words

Silje 12:56

Yeah, it's I struggle with it. And that is probably why they're not pronounced. Har du vært på norskkurs? So that is one thing to know about the R. In other cases where the R crashes with a consonant in the word after, we very often tend to not pronounce the R at all. So I'm gonna give you a sentence and pronounce it the way you probably would pronounce it. Afterward I will pronounce it the way people typically would pronounce it. "I går var jeg med fire venner" Yesterday I was with four friends. I'm gonna say it one more time the way you would probably pronounce it. So "i går" - one R - "var" - one R - "fire" -one R - "venner" - one R. Four R's in total. Now listen carefully now. How many R's do you hear? "I går var jeg med fire venner" Igovaya How many? I'll do it again. Count Count carefully [i-gå-va-jei-me-fi-re-ve-ner] Only two Fire Venner. The R in the end didn't crash with anything, and Fira is in the middle of a word, so it well it doesn't matter what comes after it. If it's in a word, the R is always pronounced. Or I'm not gonna say always, but mostly pronounced. So what happened in the beginning? Egood v after the god after good the word after there was a V. And because of that V I didn't feel like pronouncing the R. It is just hard to say it. I can, but it's it tends to disappear. And same thing with after "var", there was a J "j" "var Jeg" Y. And it's not a strict rule, it just tends to happen. And it depends also a little bit on the consonant. For instance, if the consonant is a h then very often the the r is pronounced because it's not really hard to say uh after h d.

R Endings And Tense Confusion

Silje 15:56

So there you go. This is the reason why why very often you don't hear the Rs, why when you hear Norwegian speak, you don't hear as many Rs as you see when you write. And this also might be, especially if you are an English speaker and you haven't learned any other languages but Norwegian. The difference between infinitive and present tense can be super hard because when you make present tense, you put an R in the end, but when you make infinitive, you don't put an R. In English, there is no difference in most cases between infinitive and present tense. Uh and when Norwegians speak, they very often do not pronounce the R in the end. So this is something to pay attention to, and maybe especially if you are British, because British tend not to pronounce the Rs in the end of words in general, which might make them think that they hear Rs in places where they are not, and not hear them in places where they should be. So so yeah, please let me know. If you are British, please let me know. Do you do have you experienced this? Do you feel that you hear Rs in the end of words? Uh and then you realize there aren't any? Or or maybe the other way around, like are you super confused about it? I've only talked about the rolled R now. And when it comes to the skarre-r, the French R, there is actually nothing to say. Because if you have chosen to use the scar

French R Option And Comment Challenge

Silje 17:35

r, the French R, then you're good. Just pronounce the R in every sentence, every word, doesn't matter, you pronounce it. It's as simple as that. Um yeah. So up to you. So if uh just yeah, just for fun, if uh were to say the same sentences with Skar, then I would say "HaR du væRt på noRskkuRs"? Have you been to a Norwegian course? Yeah, we actually in Bergen we don't pronounce the R in the end of var. That it sounds very formal to do that. But in general, we pronounce all the R's. Alright. I hope that clarified a bit. Feel free to write sentences in the comment field and tell me which Rs you think are not pronounced or which ones are modified. That could be interesting. Ha en fin dag! Vi høres.