I work in an aerospace corporation in China and I have gone through lots of business negotiations with officials and executives from abroad. Most of them are impressed with my pronunciation, but I still want to get better.
I wonder if a native speaker can easily hear the difference between ŋ and n. I always pronounce ŋ the same way with n.
Best Answer
Yes, native speakers can tell the difference.
But, Mandarin has both of these sounds:
/ŋ/ is the sound that is written with ng in Pinyin (e.g. at the end of 龍 lóng).
/n/ is the sound that is written with n in Pinyin at the beginning of syllables (e.g. at the start of 南 nán). In some places in China, this is also the sound at the end of 南; in other parts of China, n is pronounced as a nasalised vowel when it comes at the end of a word.
So if you can speak Mandarin, you can surely say both of these sounds.