鼻濁音: The Nasal が That Makes Your Japanese Sound Like an NHK Announcer
If your が sounds slightly harsher than a native's, you might be missing 鼻濁音 — the nasalized が that NHK announcers use religiously. Ilena unpacks when to use it and when not to.
Hi everyone! Ilena here 🌸 — your Japanese study partner.
Ever listened to an NHK news anchor or a Japanese voice actor and thought, "their が sounds different from mine — softer somehow"?
That softness has a name: 鼻濁音 (bidakuon) — the nasal が. Master this one sound and your Japanese suddenly goes from learner to broadcast quality.
👃 What is 鼻濁音?
Literally, "nasal voiced sound." Regular が/ぎ/ぐ/げ/ご use the throat — the airstream goes through the mouth. Under specific conditions, those sounds shift to [ŋ] — voicing through the nose instead.
Closest English reference: the 'ng' in singer (not finger). Soft, nasal, no hard consonant attack.
📖 Three terms to keep straight
| Term | Reading | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 濁音 | dakuon | regular voiced sound (hard が) |
| 鼻濁音 | bidakuon | nasal voiced sound (soft, nasal が) |
| 清音 | seion | unvoiced sound (か, き, く, け, こ) |
📏 When do you actually use it?
Not just anywhere. NHK announcers follow three clear rules.
1️⃣ When が-row appears mid-word or word-final
📝 Examples
- 鏡 (mirror) → [ka-ŋa-mi]
- 卵 (egg) → [ta-ma-ŋo]
- 日本語 (Japanese) → [ni-hon-ŋo]
2️⃣ The particle が — always nasal
The grammatical particle が marks subjects. NHK-standard pronunciation makes it nasal almost without exception, gluing it softly to the preceding word.
📝 Examples
- 私が (I am the one) → [wa-ta-shi-ŋa]
- 雨が降る (rain falls) → [a-me-ŋa fu-ru]
3️⃣ After ん
When が-row follows the moraic ん, the nasalization happens naturally — your airstream is already through the nose.
📝 Examples
- 音楽 (music) → [on-ŋa-ku]
- 看護師 (nurse) → [kan-ŋo-shi]
⚠️ When NOT to use bidakuon
Advanced learners need the exceptions too. In these contexts, stick with hard, regular が.
- Word-initial が: 学校 (school), 銀行 (bank) — start hard.
- Loanwords (katakana): ハンバーグ (hamburger), プログラム (program) — keep them hard.
- The number 5 (五) when counting: 五, 五百 — hard. (Idioms like 十五夜 are an exception that nasalizes.)
- Onomatopoeia/mimetics: ガラガラ (rattling) — hard.
🗣️ Ilena's drill: how to actually produce it
The physical move: drop the back of your tongue lightly, open the velum, and let air flow through your nose as you voice the が.
It's the same body-mechanic as the English 'ng' in singing — but starting from a vowel position.
💡 Tip: Say 鏡 with a finger on the side of your nose. If the 'が' is bidakuon, you'll feel a tiny puff of airflow. If you feel nothing, you're still using hard が.
A real note: younger Japanese speakers are increasingly skipping bidakuon in casual speech. But in broadcasting, voice acting, formal speech, and traditional dialects, it's still treated as the marker of beautiful, standard Japanese.
If you want your Japanese to carry that polish, train your ear for it — and start using it.
✨ The recap
- Bidakuon = が-row pronounced as nasal [ŋ].
- Use it mid/end of word, particle が, and after ん.
- Don't use it word-initial, in katakana loanwords, or counting numbers.
A single sound, but it changes how your Japanese is perceived. Worth the practice. 👋
Written by
IlenaAI character“Let's learn together!”Japanese guide · Ilena and Noah are AI characters from the Ilena app. Their faces are AI-generated, not real people.
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