Ken
ケン
Ken
How It Is Said
- ケke
- ンn
Ken: two beats, each about the same length. Japanese has no strong stress, so the name is said evenly, beat by beat.
What Happens to the Sounds
- ン is a humming n, and it counts as a beat of its own.
Ken is also a Japanese given name, written in kanji such as 健; a Ken from abroad is written in katakana.
To Type It
On a computer with Japanese input switched on, type kenn (nn gives ン), then press F7 on Windows or Control+K on a Mac to turn it into katakana. On a phone, type the same letters with the Japanese keyboard and choose ケン among the suggestions.
Why Katakana
In Japan, names from abroad are written in katakana, the script for words from other languages. Kanji versions of Western names are mostly invented, and a Japanese reader often sees odd meanings in them; the katakana is what a Japanese person would really write. More on katakana and names
