(Compound) Front Nasal Finals: an, en, in, un, ün Flashcards
The nasal final is a final that the simple finals composed with the nasal consonant -n or -ng. The finals ending with -n are called the front nasal final, and the finals ending with -ng is called the back nasal final. Let’s start with the front nasal finals first. First pronounce the single vowel, a, e, i, u or ü, then move your tongue to the back of the upper teeth to make the “n” sound.
an
like “an” in “land”
similar to “an” in the English “fan”
lǎn 懒 adj. lazy
en
like “en” in “stolen”
similar to “en” in the English “end”
mén 门 n. door
in
like “in”
“yin”
If there is no initial consonant before i, i is written as a semi-vowel, y. Thus ia, ie, iao, iu, ian, iang become ya, ye, yao, you (note that the o cannot be omitted here: iu = iou), yan, yang,. Before in and ing, add y, e.g., yin and ying.
xīn 心 n. heart
un
like “oon” in “moon”
“wen”
The main vowel e is omitted in un (un = uen)
but you still pronounce the vowel when speaking.
u becomes w if not preceded by an initial.
wa, wai, wan, wang, wei, wen, weng, wo.
kùn 困 adj. sleepy
ün
English, like “u” in “lune”, plus “n” in “stolen”
combine “ü” and “n”
If there is no initial consonant before the ü, add a y and drop the umlaut: yu, yuan, yue, yun
yún 云 n. cloud
