Norwegian Keyboard: æ, ø, å and Why é Takes AltGr on Windows

Which Norwegian words use é, ò and ô?

Wiktionary's Norwegian Bokmål entries give these, two of them with a form that drops the mark:

• idé and kafé, an idea and a café. Both list their definite forms with or without the accent: idéen or ideen, kaféen or kafeen.
• én, the stressed form of en, one.
• òg, too or also, the same as også.
• fôr, feed or fodder, and the lining of a coat; Wiktionary also lists the spelling for.

CLDR's main letters for Norwegian add à and ó to these. In the editor at the top, Alt with o steps through ó, ò, ô and ø.

What if a keyboard has no å, ø or æ?

Write aa for å. Wiktionary's Norwegian usage note for å says the older spelling aa may be used when å is unavailable, and it survives in names anyway. Its notes for æ and ø give them no such stand-in: each is a letter of its own, æ is not filed as ae, and ø sits between æ and å at the end of the alphabet. So on an English keyboard this Norwegian keyboard online, or the device cards that follow, are the way to type them.

How do the Norwegian and Danish layouts differ, key by key?

In a few places, and the first two are the letters themselves: the Danish keyboard swaps æ and ø of the Norwegian keyboard layout. Microsoft's layout files for Norwegian, KLID 00000414, and Danish, 00000406, compared on 2026-10-25, agree on everything else, from å right of P to the digit keys and the brackets on AltGr.

Key	Norwegian	Danish
Right of L	ø	æ
The key after it	æ	ø
Right of +, before Backspace	\ alone, ` with Shift, ´ with AltGr	´ alone, ` with Shift, | with AltGr
Left of 1	| and §	½ and §
The backslash \	that key, alone	AltGr with <

Caps Lock gives Å, Ø and Æ on the Norwegian keys. Windows' table of default input profiles lists it for both nb-NO and nn-NO. The letters themselves, and the Danish rules for sorting them, are on the Danish alphabet page, which covers Norwegian too.

Why does é take AltGr on a Norwegian layout, and not on a Mac?

Because Windows gives the backslash the key without a modifier. The accent is a dead key on the same key, one layer up. To type é:

1. Hold AltGr and press the key before Backspace, the one that types a backslash. Nothing appears yet.
2. Press e. That gives é; use o instead for ó, while Space leaves the ´ itself.
3. For ò, press that key with Shift instead, then o. It is the grave, `, and makes à the same way.
4. For ô, press Shift with the ¨ key right of å, then o.

A Mac's Norwegian input source turns it round. Measured with UCKeyTranslate on macOS 26.6.2, the same key is ´ without a modifier and ` with Shift, so é is two plain presses. Danish on Windows works like the Mac here.

What does Norwegian with Sami put on AltGr?

Letters for Sami, the language it is named after. Norwegian with Sami, KLID 0000043B, keeps every Norwegian key and fills AltGr: á on A, č on C, đ on D, ŋ on N, š on S, ŧ on T and ž on Z, among others, with their capitals on Shift and AltGr. AltGr with ø gives ö, and with æ gives ä. Its ´ dead key also puts the accent on ø, å and æ.

Microsoft's default input profiles give it to Northern, Lule and Southern Sami in Norway. The Enter key differs too: it is one row tall, and the ' key moves up beside the ¨ key. The Mac's nearest input sources are Norwegian, Norwegian – Extended and Norwegian Sámi – PC.