å

See also: Å and Appendix:Variations of "a"

å	U+00E5, å LATIN SMALL LETTER A WITH RING ABOVE

Composition:

a [U+0061] + ◌̊ [U+030A]

← ä
[U+00E4]

Latin-1 Supplement

æ →
[U+00E6]

Bavarian

Letter

å (lower case, upper case Å)

A letter of some Bavarian alphabets.

Usage notes

å [ɔ] is distinguished from a [ɑ], as in Håndl (= Handel) vs. Handl (= Händlein, Händchen), wår (= war) vs. war (= wäre)
Some other special characters sometimes used in Bavarian German are:
- ä, ö, ü (even in some older Fraktur texts with dots instead of aͤ, oͤ, uͤ)
- a͡i, a͡u, e͡a, i͡a, o͡a, u͡a
- ^r

Chamorro

Pronunciation

IPA^(key): /ɑ/

Letter

å (lower case, upper case Å)

The third letter of the Chamorro alphabet, written in the Latin script.

Cimbrian

on; For stationary objects, e.g. It is on the table. [with dative]
on, onto; For moving objects. e.g. I put it on the table. [with accusative]

Adverb

å

(Luserna) on, onward

References

Patuzzi, Umberto, ed., (2013) Luserna / Lusérn: Le nostre parole / Ünsarne börtar / Unsere Wörter [Our Words], Luserna, Italy: Comitato unitario delle isole linguistiche storiche germaniche in Italia / Einheitskomitee der historischen deutschen Sprachinseln in Italien

Danish

Etymology 1

Analogical after the other names of vowel letters in the Roman alphabet. This etymology is incomplete. You can help Wiktionary by elaborating on the origins of this term.

Pronunciation

IPA^(key): [ˈɔˀ]

Letter

å (lower case, upper case Å)

the last (29th) letter of the Danish alphabet

Inflection

Declension of å
neuter gender	singular		plural
neuter gender	indefinite	definite	indefinite	definite
nominative	å	å'et	å'er	å'erne
genitive	å's	å'ets	å'ers	å'ernes

Declension of Å
neuter gender	singular		plural
neuter gender	indefinite	definite	indefinite	definite
nominative	Å	Å'et	Å'er	Å'erne
genitive	Å's	Å'ets	Å'ers	Å'ernes

Alternative forms

aa (at least in the spelling of words)

Etymology 2

From Old Norse á (“river”), from Proto-Germanic *ahwō, from Proto-Indo-European *h₂ekʷeh₂ (“water”), related to Latin aqua (“water”).

Pronunciation

IPA^(key): [ˈɔˀ]

Noun

å c (singular definite åen, plural indefinite åer)

river, creek, stream (only used of rivers in Denmark)

Declension

Declension of å
common gender	singular		plural
common gender	indefinite	definite	indefinite	definite
nominative	å	åen	åer	åerne
genitive	ås	åens	åers	åernes

Derived terms

Etymology 3

From Old Norse á (“ow!”).

Alternative forms

åh

Pronunciation

IPA^(key): [ˈɔː]

Interjection

å

Etymology 4

From Old Norse á, from Proto-Germanic *ana (“on, onto”). Cognate with Swedish å, English on, and German an.

Pronunciation

IPA^(key): [ɔ], (at the end of a clause) IPA^(key): [ˈɔʱ]

Preposition

å

(Jutland, dialectal) on
Synonym: på

East Central German

Etymology

Cognate to German an.

Letter

å (lower case, upper case Å)

(Silesian) A letter of some Silesian alphabets.

Usage notes

Alternative characters used instead of å are oa.

Preposition

å (+ dative)

(Silesian, local) on

Preposition

å (+ accusative)

(Silesian) on

Finnish

Etymology

See Å.

Pronunciation

(sound): IPA^(key): /o/ (generally)
Audio (letter name); “ruotsalainen oo”: (file)

Letter

å (lower case, upper case Å)

The twenty-sixth letter of the Finnish alphabet, called ruotsalainen oo and written in the Latin script.

Usage notes

Despite being part of the Finnish alphabet, the letter is only used in Scandinavian names. As a result, it is often seen as a symbol of the Swedish language (which is also an official language in Finland, although not without controversy).
- As of 2026, the main monolingual Finnish dictionary, Kielitoimiston sanakirja (which includes the core established vocabulary but no names or proper nouns), includes only one lemma spelled with Å (ångström). For comparison with some other foreign letters, there are 41 lemmas with X, 26 lemmas with Q, 85 lemmas with Š, 9 lemmas with Ž and 20 lemmas with É.

Low German

Letter

å (lower case, upper case Å)

A letter of some Low German alphabets.

Usage notes

Alternative characters used instead of å are ao, oa, â, a, aa.
There are various ways to denote the umlaut of å. See for example D. G. Babst, Allerhand schnaksche Saken tum Tiedverdriew, Chr. Gilow, De Hochtîd.
For the variant spelling a, the characters ä, æ or œ do occur for the umlaut.

North Frisian

Pronunciation

IPA^(key): [ɔ] (short vowel)
IPA^(key): [ɔː] (long vowel, spelt åå)

Letter

å (lower case, upper case Å)

(Mooring) A letter of the North Frisian alphabet, written in the Latin script.

Usage notes

Mooring uses the single letter ⟨o⟩ chiefly for unstressed [o]. An exception is the sequence ⟨or⟩, however, which in contemporary pronunciation is realized identically to ⟨år⟩.
Long ⟨åå⟩ when followed by ⟨g⟩ is often pronounced [aʊ̯] instead of [ɔː].

Norwegian Bokmål

Wikipedia has articles on:

Å (English)
Å (bokstav) (Norwegian)

Etymology 1

Borrowed from Swedish å (“the letter å”). The letter was introduced into official Norwegian orthography in 1917, replacing the traditional Danish–Norwegian digraph ⟨aa⟩.

The character originated as an early modern German typographical innovation and entered Swedish through the printing press, appearing in works including Olaus Petri's catechism and the Swedish New Testament of 1526. Graphically, it developed from ⟨aa⟩, with the second ⟨a⟩ written above the first and gradually reduced to a ring.

The digraph and later the letter represented the development of Old Norse long á /ɑː/, which became rounded /ɔː/ and was subsequently raised to /oː/ in much of mainland Scandinavian.

The Scandinavian orthography meeting held in Stockholm in 1869 proposed introducing ⟨å⟩ throughout the Scandinavian languages. Norwegian writers including Henrik Ibsen and Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson adopted it before its official introduction.

Alternative forms

aa (superseded in 1917; still used in some proper names and when ⟨å⟩ is unavailable)

Pronunciation

IPA^(key): /oː/
Rhymes: -oː
Hyphenation: å

Letter

å (lower case, upper case Å)

The twenty-ninth and last letter of the Norwegian Bokmål alphabet, written in the Latin script.

Noun

å m (definite singular å-en, indefinite plural å-er, definite plural å-ene)

The lowercase form of Å, the twenty-ninth and final letter of the Norwegian Bokmål alphabet, written in the Latin script and representing the vowel phonemes /oː/ and /ɔ/.
the vowel sound represented by this letter
Ordet uttales med kort å. ― The word is pronounced with a short å sound.

Usage notes

The earlier spelling ⟨aa⟩ remains in established personal names and certain other proper names. It may also be used when the character ⟨å⟩ is unavailable.
Unlike an ordinary Latin letter with a diacritic, ⟨å⟩ is treated as a separate letter of the Norwegian alphabet and is alphabetized after ⟨ø⟩.
Long /oː/ is usually written ⟨å⟩, while short /ɔ/ is more commonly written ⟨o⟩, although exceptions occur.

Etymology 2

Inherited from Old Norse á (“stream, river”), from Proto-Germanic *ahwō (“stream, river; water”), from Proto-Indo-European *h₂ékʷeh₂ (“water”).

Cognate with Icelandic á, Faroese á, Swedish å, Danish å, Old English ēa and German Ache (“stream, river”).

Pronunciation

IPA^(key): /oː/
Rhymes: -oː
Hyphenation: å

Noun

å f or m (definite singular åa or åen, indefinite plural åer, definite plural åene)

(dialectal, archaic, biblical) a stream or small river
mange bekker små gjør en stor å — every little helps; many small contributions can together produce a significant result

Derived terms

åfløy (“small flat-bottomed boat used as a ferry”)
åmot (“confluence of two rivers”)

Etymology 3

Inherited from Old Norse at (“at, by, to; infinitive marker”), from Proto-Germanic *at (“at, toward”). The use as an infinitive marker developed from the directional meaning of the preposition, comparable to the use of English to, German zu and French à before infinitives.

The word was officially written ⟨at⟩ in Norwegian until the spelling reform of 1917. In ordinary speech it was already generally pronounced /ɔ/, while /at/ survived as a formal reading pronunciation; the new spelling ⟨å⟩ reflected the common spoken form.

Compare Danish at, Swedish att, Icelandic að and Faroese at (“infinitive marker”).

Pronunciation

IPA^(key): /ɔ/
Rhymes: -ɔ
Homophone: og
Hyphenation: å

Particle

å

(grammar) to; an infinitive marker placed before a verb in the infinitive
Å lære et nytt språk tar tid. ― Learning a new language takes time.

Hun liker å lese. ― She likes to read.

Det er godt å komme hjem. ― It is good to come home.

Han dro uten å si farvel. ― He left without saying goodbye.

for å — in order to; introducing a clause which expresses purpose
Hun dro tidlig for å rekke toget. ― She left early in order to catch the train.

Usage notes

Bokmålsordboka and NAOB classify å as a subjunction; it is traditionally called the infinitive marker.
Because å and og (“and”) are normally homophonous, they are frequently confused in writing. å introduces an infinitive, while og coordinates words, phrases or clauses.
Before two or more coordinated infinitives, å is normally used only before the first: å lese (“to read”) og skrive (“write”).

Etymology 4

Probably resulting from the merger of Old Norse á (“ah; an interjection expressing surprise or doubt”) and Old Norse ó (“oh; an interjection used to attract attention or express sorrow, regret or joy”). Their forms and partly overlapping emotional functions converged in Norwegian as å.

The interjection often corresponds to the more literary, archaic or poetic o (“oh”).

Pronunciation

IPA^(key): /oː/, /ɔ/
Rhymes: -oː, -ɔ
Hyphenation: å

Interjection

å

oh; used in an exclamation expressing surprise, wonder or recognition
Å, er det deg? ― Oh, is that you?
oh; expressing a wish, request or appeal
Å, vær så snill! ― Oh, please!
oh; expressing an emotion such as joy, sorrow, fear or distress
Å, så fantastisk! ― Oh, how wonderful!
huh, oh; expressing scepticism, doubt or surprise in response to something
Å, jaså? ― Oh, really?
oh; expressing sudden understanding, reflection or relief
Å, nå forstår jeg. ― Oh, now I understand.
used in affirmative or emphatic replies
Vil du være med? – Å ja! ― Would you like to come? – Oh yes!
oh; expressing aversion, impatience or dismissal
Å, for noe tull! ― Oh, what nonsense!

Etymology 5

Inherited from Old Norse hvat (“what”). A dialectal reflex of the same Old Norse interrogative pronoun that yielded standard Bokmål hva (“what”), with reduction and loss of the original initial consonant cluster.

Compare Danish hvad, Swedish vad, Icelandic hvað and Faroese hvat (“what”).

Pronunciation

IPA^(key): /oː/
Rhymes: -oː
Hyphenation: å

Pronoun

å

(dialectal) what
Synonym: hva

Etymology 6

Inherited from Old Norse hvar (“where; how”). A dialectal reflex of the Old Norse interrogative adverb. Standard Bokmål hvor (“where; how”) instead continues the corresponding Danish form hvor, from Old Danish hwar.

The inherited adverb retained both its locative meaning “where” and its use as a degree adverb meaning “how; to what extent”.

Compare Swedish var, Icelandic hvar and Faroese hvar (“where”).

Pronunciation

IPA^(key): /oː/
Rhymes: -oː
Hyphenation: å

Adverb

å

(dialectal) where
Synonym: hvor
(dialectal) how; to what degree or extent
Synonym: hvor

Etymology 7

Inherited from Old Norse á (“on, at”). The simple preposition survives chiefly in dialectal and fossilized use, including compounds such as åkle, åbreisle, åsted and åsyn.

Standard Bokmål på (“on, at”) ultimately contains the same preposition, having developed from Old Norse upp á (“up on”).

Pronunciation

IPA^(key): /oː/
Rhymes: -oː
Hyphenation: å

Preposition

å

(dialectal) on
Synonym: på

References

“å” in The Bokmål Dictionary.
“å” in Norwegian Academy Dictionary (NAOB).
“Å (bokstav)”, Store norske leksikon

Norwegian Nynorsk

Norwegian Nynorsk Wikipedia has an article on:

å

Wikipedia ⁿⁿ

Alternative forms

aa (Etymologies 2–6, obsolete typography (pre-1917))

Etymology 1

Borrowed from Swedish å.

Pronunciation

IPA^(key): /oː/
Homophone: og

Letter

å (lower case, upper case Å)

The twenty-ninth and last letter of the Norwegian Nynorsk alphabet, written in the Latin script.

Usage notes

Before the letter's introduction in 1917, the sound it represents today (similar to the "a" in "all") was written with two A's, Aa (this spelling can still be seen in names and toponyms). The two A's was originally a new form of the Old Norse á, whose representation was a long open a-sound (similar to the "a" in "father"). Gradually it turned into the modern å-sound and the Aa was eventually replaced with Å. Today, the letter å may be used without having the etymological correspondence with á.

The letter å or aa in the Norwegian runic inscriptions from the seventeenth to the nineteenth century is usually written as ᛆᛆ.

Noun

å m (definite singular å-en, indefinite plural å-ar, definite plural å-ane)

the letter Å

Etymology 2

From Old Norse at (“by, to”), whence also at and åt.

Pronunciation

IPA^(key): /ɔ/

Particle

å

used as the infinitive marker; to
Dei er vanskelege å sjå.
They are hard to see.

Etymology 3

From Old Norse á, from Proto-Germanic *ahwō, from Proto-Indo-European *h₂ékʷeh₂. Cognates include Latin aquā (“water”).

Pronunciation

IPA^(key): /oː/

Noun

å f (definite singular åa, indefinite plural åer, definite plural åene)

a (small) river; a creek
Mange bekker små gjer ei stor å
numerous small contributions give big results
(literally, “Many small creeks makes a big stream”)
(chiefly dialectal or archaic) a (large) stream

Inflection

Historical inflection of å
	singular		plural
	indefinite	definite	indefinite	definite
Aasen¹	Aa	Aai	Aaer	Aaerna
1901			aaer (aair)	aaerne (aaine)
1917	å	åa, åi	åer	åene
1938		åa [åi]
2012 (current)	å	åa	åer	åene

Forms in italics are currently considered non-standard.
Forms in [brackets] were official, but considered second-tier.
Forms in (parentheses) were allowed under Midlandsnormalen.
¹Nouns were capitalised for most of the 19th century.

Alternative forms

(creek): åg (Nordnorsk)
(creek): ån (Valdres, Hallingdal)
(creek): o (dialectal)

Derived terms

Etymology 4

From Old Norse ó, was used in the same sense.

Pronunciation

IPA^(key): /oː/
Homophone: og

Interjection

å

To express different emotions; oh
Å, er det du?
oh, is it you?

Å gud, for eit dårleg vêr det er!
Oh dear, what a bad weather!

Å skitt, du er i trøbbel!
Oh no, you're in trouble!
Used to make the message more urgent, pleading, or to underline it; oh
Å, ver so snill, kan vi kje dra?
oh please! Can't we go?
To express hesitation or dismissal; oh
Å ja, seier du det?
oh really, is that so?

Kva skjedde? Å, ingenting.
What happened? Oh! Nothing.

Å, eg er ikkje so sikker på det
oh, I'm not so sure about that

Etymology 5

From Old Norse á (“on, on top of”).

Pronunciation

IPA^(key): /ɔ/

Preposition

å

used in certain fixed expressions regarding position
Han fall å bak
He fell backwards
(literally, “He fell on back”)

Ho låg å gruve.
She was lying on her stomach.
used in expressions regarding time
Det er midt å natta.
It's the middle of the night.

Etymology 6

From Old Norse hvat, same as kva. Other dialectal variants include ka, ke or kæ.

Pronoun

å

(dialectal) what (interrogative pronoun)

Etymology 7

Named after Swedish physisist Anders Jonas Ångström (1814–1874). An initialism of his name.

Alternative forms

Å (upper case symbol)
ångstrøm (full unit of measure)

Symbol

å

(physics) symbol used to represent an angstrom unit

Etymology 8

Conjunction

å

misspelling of og

Adverb

å

misspelling of òg

References

“å” in The Nynorsk Dictionary.
“å”, in Norsk Ordbok: Ordbok over det Norske Folkemålet og det Nynorske Skriftmålet (in Norwegian Nynorsk), Oslo: Det Norske Samlaget, 1950–2016, →ISBN.
“å” in The Ordnett Dictionary
“å” in Norwegian Academy Dictionary (NAOB).
Ivar Aasen (1850), “aa”, in Ordbog over det norske Folkesprog‎^[1] (in Danish), Oslo: Samlaget, published 2000

Skolt Sami

Pronunciation

(phoneme) IPA^(key): /ɔ/

Letter

å (lower case, upper case Å)

The thirty-fifth letter of the Skolt Sami alphabet, written in the Latin script.

Slovene

Etymology

Letter a with ring above ◌̊ to signify a closer rounded vowel.

Pronunciation

(sound): IPA^(key): [ɒ̝]

Symbol

å

(SNPT) Phonetic transcription of dialectal sound [ɒ̝].

References

Kenda-Jež, Karmen (27 February 2017), Fonetična trankripcija [Phonetic transcription]‎^[2] (in Slovene), Znanstvenoraziskovalni center SAZU, Inštitut za slovenski jezik Frana Ramovša, archived from the original on 22 January 2022, pages 27–30

Southern Sami

Pronunciation

(phoneme) IPA^(key): /o/

Letter

å (lower case, upper case Å)

The twenty-fifth letter of the Southern Sami alphabet, written in the Latin script.

Swedish

Pronunciation

Audio; “en å” (a river, noun): (file)

Letter name, noun, preposition

IPA^(key): /oː/, [oə̯]

Phoneme

IPA^(key): /oː/, /ɔ/

Etymology 1

From two a’s written on top of each other; compare ä and ö.

Letter

å (lower case, upper case Å)

The third to last letter of the Swedish alphabet, called å and written in the Latin script.

Etymology 2

From Old Swedish ā, from Old Norse á, from Proto-Germanic *ahwō, from Proto-Indo-European *h₂ekʷeh₂.

Noun

å c

a river, a creek, a big stream
Gå inte över ån efter vatten.
Don’t cross the stream to get water.

Usage notes

Watercourses in Sweden and the other Nordic countries are in Swedish usually referred to as bäck, å or älv. An å is usually larger than a bäck (“brook, creek”) but smaller than an älv (“large river”). A certain large bäck may however be larger than a certain small å, and a certain large å may be larger than a certain small älv. The word to use about a certain watercourse is often included as part of its name: Göta älv, Stångån. There are regional differences in whether watercourses of a certain size tend to have å or älv in their names. All älvar are found north of Gothenburg, but that is also where the largest rivers in Scandinavia are found. For some rivers in southern Sweden the word ström is used, since that is the watercourse word included in their names. Rivers in other parts of the world are usually referred to with the word flod, which is a more neutral word for any watercourse larger than a bäck.

Declension

Declension of å
		nominative	genitive
singular	indefinite	å	ås
singular	definite	ån	åns
plural	indefinite	åar	åars
plural	definite	åarna	åarnas

Etymology 3

From Old Norse á, from Proto-Germanic *ana.

Preposition

å

(obsolete except in certain expressions) on

Usage notes

å is generally an older form of på, which derives from the compound upp +‎ å. Compare English 'pon.

Derived terms

Etymology 4

Contraction of och (“and; to”).

Alternative forms

o

Conjunction

å

(informal) pronunciation spelling of och (“and”)
Korv å mos
Sausage 'n' mash

Particle

å

(informal) pronunciation spelling of att (“to”)
Synonym: att
- 2023 November 2, 11:12 from the start, in Rapport 19:30, spoken by Andreas Öbrink:
  Men det har varit svårt för småpartierna å nå ut i år med frågor som […]
  But it has been difficult for the small parties to reach out this year with issues such as […]

Usage notes

The term is often only used in spoken language, or depictions of such.