IPA phoneme \n\

**IPA consonants**

In English, both in Received Pronunciation and in General American, the IPA phonetic symbol **/n/** corresponds to the initial consonant sound in words like "nice" and "know" and the final one in "one" and "can".

## Common words

Initial pronunciation of **/n/**:

* knee, knife, knock, know, name, near, need, never, new, next, nice, night, note, nothing, now, number

Final pronunciation of **/n/**:

* again, begin, between, can, down, even, happen, man, mean, own, question, run, then, turn, when, woman

Middle pronunciation of **/n/**:

* as "n": company, country, end, enough, interest, many, money, understand
* as "nn": announce, annual, channel, connection, dinner, funny, manner

## /n.n/ vs /n/

* /n.n/: meanness, unknown, unnatural, unnecessary
* /n/: cannot, innate, innovation

If a word cannot be separated in two components (such as mean-ness or can-not) then there is no doubt that the pronunciation is /n/.

* announce, annual, connection, dinner, funny

## Assimilation

Before /k/ or /g/, /n/ can optionally be pronounced [ŋ] as in an alternative pronunciation of *income* as [ˈɪŋkʌm]. There are no minimal pairs in which the difference is /nk/ and /ŋk/, or /ng/ and /ŋg/.

In many words the combinations "nc", "nch", "nk" and "nq" represent /ŋk/, as in *uncle, anchor, ink* and *banquet*. In many words "ng" represents /ŋg/ as in *finger* and *kangaroo*.

Before /p/ or /b/, /n/ can be pronounced [m] as in an alternative pronunciation of *input* as [ˈɪmpʊt]. There are no minimal pairs in which the difference is /np/ and /mp/, or /nb/ and /mb/.

In the following example in addition to /mp/ and /np/ there is a difference in stress: impatient /ɪmˈpeɪʃənt /, inpatient /ˈɪnˌpeɪʃənt/.

Before /f/ or /v/, /n/ and /m/ may be neutralized and pronounced [ɱ], a labiodental nasal. This explains common misspellings such as \*comfirmation.

Assimilation may occur across word boundaries: "in case" pronounced [ɪŋ ˈkeɪs], "in place" pronounced [ɪm ˈpleɪs] and "in front" pronounced [iɱ frʌnt].

### Lack of assimilation

The following words are shown with /nk/ in most dictionaries.

* With "nc": conclude, conclusion, encourage, include, income, incorporate, increase, unclear
* With "nch": melancholic, melancholy
* With "nk": mankind, painkiller, unkind
* With "nq": enquire, inquire, unquestionable

The following words are shown with /ng/ in most dictionaries.

* congratulate, engage, engrave, ingrained, ingredient, sunglasses, ungrateful

The following words are shown with /nb/ in most dictionaries.

* cranberry, rainbow, sunbathe, unbearable, unbelievable

The following words are shown with /np/ in most dictionaries.

* chickenpox, gunpowder, inpatient, input, manpower, unpack, unpleasant, unpopular

## Anticipated pronunciation difficulties depending on L1

### Spanish

Assimilation is normal in Spanish. Not only [ˈimput] as a Spanish word is more common than [ˈinput]. The latter can hardly be pronounced.

## See also

* Decoding the letter N
* IPA phonetic symbol [n̩] (syllabic /n/)
* Pronunciation exercises: /mf/ vs /nf/

## References

1. ↑ Historical Sound Changes - Assimilation
2. ↑ SLTinfo, Labialization

## External links

* British Library, Received Pronunciation consonant sounds