Language guide
Icelandic Alphabet & Pronunciation Guide
The Icelandic alphabet has 32 letters: the familiar Latin set plus a few extras, minus a few you might expect. Here is every letter with a plain-English pronunciation approximation, why Icelandic orthography skips c, q, w and z, and how to say the place names that trip up most travellers.
The 32 letters
The pronunciation hints below are plain-English approximations, not IPA, and several Icelandic sounds have no exact English equivalent, so treat these as a starting point rather than a precise transcription.
| Letter | Icelandic name | Pronunciation (approx.) | Example |
|---|---|---|---|
| A a | a | like the "a" in "father" | amma, meaning grandmother |
| Á á | a með broddi (a with an accent) | "ow" as in "cow" | á, meaning river |
| B b | bé | like English "b", often closer to an unvoiced "p" | bók, meaning book |
| D d | dé | like English "d", often closer to an unvoiced "t" | dagur, meaning day |
| Ð ð | eð | voiced "th" as in "father", and it never appears at the start of a word | að, meaning to (as in "to go") |
| E e | e | like the "e" in "bed" | eld, meaning fire (accusative) |
| É é | e með broddi (e with an accent) | "yeh", like the start of "yes" | él, meaning snow shower |
| F f | eff | usually like English "f"; between vowels it can soften toward a "v" | fjall, meaning mountain |
| G g | gé | like the hard "g" in "go" at the start of a word | gata, meaning street |
| H h | há | like English "h" | hús, meaning house |
| I i | i | short, like the "i" in "bit" | inni, meaning inside, indoors |
| Í í | i með broddi (i with an accent) | "ee" as in "see" | ís, meaning ice |
| J j | joð | like the English "y" in "yes", not a "j" sound | jökull, meaning glacier |
| K k | ká | like English "k" | kaffi, meaning coffee |
| L l | ell | like English "l" | land, meaning land, country |
| M m | emm | like English "m" | maður, meaning man, person |
| N n | enn | like English "n" | nótt, meaning night |
| O o | o | like the "o" in "pot" | og, meaning and |
| Ó ó | o með broddi (o with an accent) | "oh" as in "go" | ós, meaning river mouth |
| P p | pé | like English "p" | penni, meaning pen |
| R r | err | a rolled or tapped "r", as in Spanish | rjómi, meaning cream |
| S s | ess | always unvoiced, like the "s" in "see" | sól, meaning sun |
| T t | té | like English "t" | tími, meaning time |
| U u | u | like the "u" in French "tu", close to "oo" but shorter | upp, meaning up |
| Ú ú | u með broddi (u with an accent) | "oo" as in "moon" | út, meaning out |
| V v | vaff | like English "v" | vatn, meaning water |
| X x | ex | like English "x" (a "ks" sound); rare, mostly in loanwords | lax, meaning salmon (x is genuinely rare in native vocabulary) |
| Y y | ufsilon y | "ee", pronounced the same as í in modern Icelandic | yfir, meaning over |
| Ý ý | ufsilon y með broddi (ufsilon y with an accent) | "ee", pronounced the same as í in modern Icelandic | ný, meaning new (feminine) |
| Þ þ | þorn (thorn) | unvoiced "th" as in "thing"; it only ever starts a word, never ends one | Þingvellir, meaning "assembly plains", site of Iceland's ancient parliament |
| Æ æ | æ | "eye", like the "i" in "hi" | sæll, meaning hello (said to a man) |
| Ö ö | ö | like German "ö", close to the vowel in English "her" | höfn, meaning harbour |
The four missing letters: c, q, w, z
If you learned the 26-letter Latin alphabet, Icelandic orthography will look both bigger and smaller at once: it keeps most of the familiar letters, adds accented vowels and two extra consonants, but drops four you'd expect.
- C
- Never adopted, because Icelandic already spells the "k" and "s" sounds with k and s, so c has no job of its own. It appears only in unassimilated foreign names and words.
- Q
- Not part of the native spelling system; the "kv" sound it represents in loanwords is written kv in Icelandic. Seen only in foreign names.
- W
- Not a native Icelandic sound; the closest native sound is written v. W turns up only in foreign names and brand names.
- Z
- Formally abolished from Icelandic orthography in 1973, when official spelling replaced z with s (so lesa, not leza). It survives in a handful of older proper nouns, historical texts, and some personal or place names.
Pronouncing tricky Icelandic place names
Even travellers who never learn the alphabet in depth need to say a handful of place names out loud. Here they are broken into syllables, with the stress landing on the capitalised part.
| Place name | Say it like | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| Eyjafjallajökull | AY-uh-fyat-luh-YUH-kutl | island-mountains glacier, the 2010 eruption volcano |
| Reykjavík | RAKE-yuh-veek | "smoky bay", the capital |
| Þingvellir | THING-vet-lir | "assembly plains", site of the ancient parliament |
| Jökulsárlón | YUH-kuls-ow-lohn | "glacier river lagoon", the famous glacial lake |
| Seljalandsfoss | SELL-yuh-lands-foss | "foss" means waterfall, a suffix on many place names |
| Snæfellsjökull | SNY-fells-YUH-kutl | "snow mountain glacier", the volcano on Snæfellsnes |
| Vík í Mýrdal | VEEK ee MEER-dahl | "bay in the marsh valley", the south coast village |
| Húsavík | HOO-sah-veek | "house bay", the whale-watching town in the north |
Icelandic orthography in brief
Icelandic orthography has changed less than almost any other living language since the Middle Ages, which is why modern Icelanders can still read medieval sagas with relatively little difficulty. Most of today's spelling rules were standardised in the 19th century, with the notable exception of the 1973 removal of z. Once you know the 32 letters above, spelling is a fairly reliable guide to pronunciation, a useful head start if you plan to read menus, road signs, or trail markers on a trip.
For more on planning a trip around the country's harder-to-say landmarks, see our full list of Iceland trip tools or browse Iceland's attractions.
Frequently asked questions
- How many letters are in the Icelandic alphabet?
- The modern Icelandic alphabet has 32 letters: a, á, b, d, ð, e, é, f, g, h, i, í, j, k, l, m, n, o, ó, p, r, s, t, u, ú, v, x, y, ý, þ, æ, ö. That is the standard Latin alphabet with ten added letters (á, é, í, ó, ú, ý carry accents; ð and þ are extra consonants; æ and ö are extra vowels) minus four Latin letters that Icelandic orthography does not use.
- How do you pronounce þ and ð?
- Þ (thorn) is an unvoiced "th", the same sound as the "th" in the English word "thing". Ð (eth) is a voiced "th", the same sound as the "th" in "father". As a rule of thumb, þ only ever starts a word and ð never does, so þingvellir starts with the unvoiced sound, and orð (word) ends with the voiced one.
- Why is there no c, q, w or z in Icelandic?
- C, q and w were never part of Icelandic's spelling system: their sounds are already covered by k, s, kv and v, so the letters had no job to do. Z did exist historically but was formally abolished in an 1973 spelling reform that replaced it with s everywhere (lesa, not leza); it now survives only in a few older proper nouns and historical texts. All four still appear in unassimilated foreign names and loanwords.
- How do you pronounce Eyjafjallajökull?
- Roughly "AY-uh-fyat-luh-YUH-kutl". It breaks into eyja (island), fjalla (of mountains) and jökull (glacier), literally "island-mountains glacier": the ice cap that famously erupted in 2010.
- Is Icelandic pronunciation phonetic?
- Mostly, yes. Once you know the sound each letter and letter combination makes, spelling is a fairly reliable guide to pronunciation, which is more consistent than English. The catches are a handful of consonant clusters (like ll, sounding closer to "tl", and hv, sounding like "kv") and small regional accent differences.
- Do Icelandic letter names match their sounds?
- Not always. Vowels with accents are simply named "[letter] með broddi" ("[letter] with an accent"), but several consonants have their own traditional names: b is bé, ð is eð, þ is þorn ("thorn"), and r is err. That is why reciting the alphabet sounds different from reading words aloud.