Nasal Finals in Pinyin

Finals are used to complete a pinyin. There is more than one vowel in the compound finals and nasal finals.

 

In a nasal final, there is one main vowel and combined with a nasal consonant “n” or “ng”. The nasal final ends with “n” are called Front nasal finals, while the ones ended with “ng” are called Back nasal finals.

 

The pronunciation for “n” and “ng” might be tricky.

 

Example:

e + ng = eng

The compound final “eng” should be pronounced as Shoulder, with the “e + ng“, but not in the way the “eng” sounds from the word “English”.“ong“ is replaced with “dong“.

 

Nasal Finals
Front		Back
an		ang
en		eng
in		ing
un		dong
ün

 

Here are some guides with English pronunciation on how to pronounce the nasal finals.

Final	Pronunciation as in English	Character	Meaning	Pinyin
an	Aunt	蓝	Blue	lán
en	Women	人	People	rén
in	Into	银	Silver	yín
un	Moon	困	Sleepy	kùn
ün	“ü” in German ended with “n”	晕	Dizzy	yūn
ang	Lung	狼	Wolf	láng
eng	Women “e + ng”	梦	Dream	mèng
ing	English	零	Zero	líng
ong	Long	痛	Pain	tòng

 

Tone Drills of Single Finals: an, en, in, un, ün, ang, eng, ing, ong

Nasal Finals
an	ān án ǎn àn		en	ēn én ěn èn
in	īn ín ǐn ìn		un	ūn ún ǔn ùn
ün	ǖn ǘn ǚn ǜn		ang	āng áng ǎng àng
eng	ēng éng ěng èng		ing	īng íng ǐng ìng
dong	dōng dóng dǒng dòng

 

Below are words with both Compound and Nasal Final.

Word	Meaning	Pinyin	Pronunciation
当然	Of course	dāng rán
勇敢	Brave	yǒng gǎn
咸蛋	Salted egg	xián dàn
餐厅	Restaurant	cān tīng
菱形	Rhombus	líng xíng
电影院	Cinema	diàn yǐng yuàn
永远	Forever	yǒng yuǎn