8 Pronunciation

Reductions

In Chapter 4 you read about silent letters, i.e. consonants that are written, but do not represent a sound. In some cases the vowel e is written, but not pronounced. If an /e/ occurs in an unstressed syllable between /t, d, n, l, s/ and /n/, the /e/ is not pronounced. The final /n/ constitues the second syllable and must be pronounced clearly. When you pronounce these words you go straight from /t, d, n, l, s/ in the end of one syllable to the /n/ of the next.

This rule is for instance applied:

• for numbers 13 – 19 (tretten, fjorten, femten, seksten, sytten, atten, nitten)
• when masculine nouns ending in /t, d, n, l, s/ in basic form are put in singular definite form

• all nouns in masculine, feminine and neuter form in plural definite form