Chinese · Pronunciation Guide

How do you pronounce "能" in Chinese?

Q: How do you pronounce 能 in Chinese?

能 is pronounced with the stress described below. In IPA it is written /nɤŋ˧˥/. It means “can / to be able to.” nung, rising from mid to high. The vowel is a back unrounded sound and the ending is the nasal of "song".

nung, rising from mid to high. The vowel is a back unrounded sound and the ending is the nasal of "song".

能 /nɤŋ˧˥/

néng

The climb is stable wherever it appears. Worth contrasting with 你 nǐ and 您 nín in terms of nasal endings: Mandarin distinguishes -en from -eng meaningfully, and 能 néng versus a hypothetical nén is exactly the kind of pair English ears do not register without training.

Listen: 能

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Sound it out

n- Alveolar n, tongue tip on the ridge — a front-of-mouth start to a syllable that ends at the back.

-eng A mid back unrounded vowel closed by ng. The contrast with -en is the whole game: for -eng the tongue tip stays down and the back of the tongue makes the closure, so the sound is deeper and more resonant.

néng (rising) Pitch climbs steadily from mid to high, and the nasal ending helps by giving the rise something to finish on. Second tones are easier on syllables that end in a nasal than on short open ones.

Hear it in a sentence

你能帮我吗？

Nǐ néng bāng wǒ ma?

Can you help me?

Listen: 你能帮我吗？

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你能帮我吗？ starts with nǐ before the rising néng, so no sandhi applies and nǐ keeps its dip. Then bāng is high and level, wǒ dips, and ma is toneless. The question has no rising ending — the particle stays at whatever level wǒ left behind, which after a third tone means quite low.

Where English speakers slip

The nasal is the recurring failure: learners produce "nen" with a front n, which is a different syllable shape entirely. Check by feeling your tongue tip — for -eng it should be resting behind your bottom teeth, doing nothing. The vowel is the other half: substituting "eh" as in "pen" fronts the whole syllable, when Mandarin wants the tongue pulled back.