IPA reference · consonant
n — alveolar nasal
Tongue tip seals at the alveolar ridge, air escapes through the nose.
How to make the alveolar nasal
Tongue to the ridge, soft palate down, hum.
English reference points: no, sun. If you speak English natively you already produce this sound — the work is recognising it and placing it where the target language wants it.
Languages that use it
| Language | Example | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| Italian | nome | name |
Sounds it gets confused with
Most pronunciation errors are not random — they are a substitution of the nearest sound the speaker already owns. These are the usual substitutions for n, and each one is a minimal-pair drill waiting to happen.
Spanish ñ, Italian gn and French gn are palatal, not alveolar.
What this means for learners
Japanese ん is a moraic nasal whose place changes according to what follows, and it takes a full beat of timing.
Teaching this sound
Describing a sound in words gets a student roughly half the way there. The other half is hearing it produced correctly, immediately after producing it incorrectly, with both versions available to replay. That is the argument for recording during the lesson rather than after it: the student leaves with your model of n attached to the actual words they got wrong, not to an abstract chart.
Frequently asked questions
What sound does the IPA symbol n make?
n is the alveolar nasal. Tongue tip seals at the alveolar ridge, air escapes through the nose. In English you can hear it in: no, sun.
How do you pronounce n?
Tongue to the ridge, soft palate down, hum.
Which languages have the alveolar nasal?
Among the languages covered here: Italian (nome, “name”).
What is the difference between n and ɲ?
Spanish ñ, Italian gn and French gn are palatal, not alveolar.