Sometimes the pinyin “en” sounds like the English pronunciation of “un” like in fun. Other times it sounds more like a pronunciation of “en” similar to the “en” in the name Ben with more of an emphasis on the e (“eh-n”). Which one of these is correct? Does in depend on the initial it’s combined with?
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You’ll discover all kinds of perturbations in pronunciation when you are studying Mandarin. My suggestion is to stick with the “fun” pronunciation, as this is considered standard and is most commonly heard. However, it is not wrong to say it the other way.
I’m late to this party, but I thought I should explain. The “e” in Mandarin (the so-called schwa) is neither like the “u” in fun nor the “e” in hen (if you say it like either you will have a foreign accent). It’s actually about halfway in between. However, when our English speaking brain hears it it tries to interpret it as something it knows, so we hear it as “e” or “u” depending on how close it is to one or the other
Hi,
The pinyin" en" is very easy to pronunce, just like the name “Ben”, not “fun”.It can not be changed no matter which initials it is combined with.
Dear colinhagemeyer and 891760234,
don’t worry, you can never be late to a party as long as you bring something to the table, so thank you both for adding your thoughts on this topic!
Indeed, one useful strategy is to use your native language to associate Chinese pronunciation with how you pronounce words in your language (as mentioned, such as “en” in “Ben”) - try it, it might help!
The other strategy is to really detach that part of your language speaking habits from how you are used to speaking in your native tongue. In German for example, we would pronounce “en” very harshly as EN, so it helps to try and disassociate these two.
I hope this helps everyone.
Susie
en is always pronounced as “Ben” without “B” in Chinese. Your confusion might be caused by someone who might have a accent when pronouncing “en”.