Sounds · 4 min
ん is one letter with three sounds
It shifts toward n, m or ng depending on what follows. You do not have to control it, but knowing helps your listening.
The only kana without a vowel
Of the 46 kana, ん stands alone. Every other one is a consonant plus a vowel, or a bare vowel. ん has no vowel at all, which is why it sits outside the gojūon chart.
It also never starts a word. It always attaches after another sound, filling a role a little like a final consonant.
But there is a crucial difference from a final consonant: ん takes a full beat of its own. にほん is three beats, not two.
What follows decides
Your mouth pre-shapes for the next sound and the ん changes with it. Native speakers do this without noticing.
| Next sound | ん becomes | Example |
|---|---|---|
| m, b, p (ま・ば・ぱ rows) | closer to m | さんぽ (sampo, a walk) / しんぶん (shimbun, newspaper) |
| t, d, n, r (た・だ・な・ら rows) | closer to n | みんな (minna, everyone) / かんたん (kantan, easy) |
| k, g (か・が rows) | closer to ng | にほんご (nihongo, Japanese) / げんき (genki, well) |
| A vowel, や・わ row, or end of word | a nasal vowel, hard to pin down | ほん (hon, book) / でんわ (denwa, telephone) |
You do not need to memorize this
The table looks fussy, but there is nothing to learn. English does the same thing: say "in pain" quickly and the n drifts toward m; "in class" drifts toward ng.
It happens because the mouth is already moving to the next sound, so reading comfortably usually lands you in the right place. The reason to know it is listening, not speaking.
When you hear にほんご as "nihongo" and can still recognize the ん in it, transcribing what you hear gets much easier.
Romaji normally writes it as n, though m is a common convention: しんぶん is shinbun by the standard, but shimbun is widespread — as in the newspaper name Asahi Shimbun.
Watch out when a vowel follows ん
In words like きんえん (kin’en, no smoking), do not run the ん into the vowel. It is not "kinen" but a clear break: kin · en.
There is a real pair to confuse: きんえん (禁煙, no smoking) and きねん (記念, commemoration) are told apart by the beat and the break.
Romaji marks this with an apostrophe. Writing kin’en means "break after the ん".