pronouncekit

SOUND LESSON

How to pronounce /n/: the n sound in no

Press your tongue on the ridge and hum through the nose for /n/. Separate /n/ from /l/ and from /ŋ/, with focused word and sentence practice.

/n/
American English
/n/ · nasal · alveolar · voiced
British English
/n/ · nasal · alveolar · voiced
Pronunciation model

Try it in a word

Nine men ran at noon.

Mouth & tongue

Enable JavaScript to view the 3D panda. Pronunciation steps remain available below.

Vocal folds: vibrating

TongueTeethUvula

Simplified human pronunciation. The small uvula hangs from the palate; it is not the vocal folds. The wave indicates voicing.

Voice settings

The mouth starts slightly open. Movement is slowed for observation; the synthetic sound plays once at its original speed. Pause holds the current mouth shape; reset returns to the relaxed position. The panda is a symbolic teaching aid for human pronunciation, not animal anatomy.

What your mouth is doing

The tongue tip seals on the alveolar ridge, as for /t/ and /d/. The soft palate lowers so air flows through the nose, with vibration throughout.

Comparing with Mandarin and Spanish

The tongue stays on the ridge until the sound ends. English treats final /n/ and /ŋ/ as different sounds, so sin and sing are separate words.

Some southern Mandarin dialect speakers mix n and l, and some Spanish varieties use [ŋ] at the end of words, a legitimate regional feature. For English sin, finish with the tongue tip on the ridge.

Build the sound, step by step

  1. Seal your tongue tip on the ridge and hum, feeling air leave through your nose.
  2. Drop the tongue tip into the vowel for no and night.
  3. End ten and sun with the tongue tip still touching the ridge.

What to watch for

  • Raising the back of the tongue at the end turns sin into sing.
  • Lowering the soft palate only partly can make night sound like light. Check with a pinched nose.

Hear the difference in your own voice

Compare night and light, then sin and sing. In the first pair, send air through the nose. In the second, finish with the tongue tip forward rather than the back of the tongue raised.

Compare these sounds

Keep practicing

References & editorial notes

PronounceKit wrote this lesson as practical guidance. The references below describe the sounds; the comparisons with other languages are editorial teaching suggestions. It describes common American and British patterns, not every accent, and it has not been independently reviewed by a pronunciation specialist. The mouth model is a simplified teaching aid, not a validated simulation.

Published 3 November 2026