/t/, /ch/ or /ts/ ( た, ち, つ, て, と) /z/, /dg/ or /dz/ (ざ, じ, ず, ぜ, ぞ) /d/ or /dg/ or /dz/ (だ, ぢ, づ, で, ど) /n/ (な, に, ぬ, ね, の) /r/ (similar to ‘tt’ in ‘letter’) (ら, り, る, れ, ろ)
/ng/
/k/ (か, き, く, け, こ) /g/ or /ng/ (が, ぎ, ぐ, げ, ご)
Full-syllable nasalization
/s/ or /sh/ (さ, し, す, せ, そ) /h/ (は, ひ, ふ, へ, ほ) /y/ (や, ゆ, よ) /w/ (わ) vowel (あ, い, う, え, お) pause (at the end of a word)
The syllabic ん occurs in the middle or at the end
of a word. It NEVER occurs at the beginning of a Japanese word. (* This は is pronounced as
/wa/. We will discuss this later.)
こんにちは*
Hello!
げんき
good health
こんばんは*
Good evening!
げき
stage play
Syllabic ん before な, に, ぬ, ね and の retains its full syllabic length. Do not reduce it.
ほね
bone
ほんね
true meaning
こな
powder
こんな
this kind of
あな
hole
あんな
that kind of
In some romaji-based dictionaries, when syllabic ん is followed by あ, い, う, え, お, や, ゆ, or よ, an apostrophe is used to distinguish it from な, に, ぬ, ね, の, にゃ, にゅ or にょ. Study the table below.