Nekojarashi
July/August 1999 No.20
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Learning Japanese
ん の不思議 The strange "ん"
It is not easy for native Japanese speakers to teach the pronunciation of Japanese to foreigners, because Japanese
comes naturally to us. For example, "ん" has three pronunciation as depending on what it precedes, but
almost all Japanese people insist "ん" is "ん".
Can you understand how 1) to 3) are different in pronunciation?
1) しんぶん (newspaper) shimbun "m" とんぼ tombo
2) にんじん (carrot) ninjin "n" おんな onna
3) おんがく (music) o-ng-gaku "ng" てんか tengka