In Swahili ng is /ngg/ as in finger. The g-less sound of singer is much less common, and is written ng', as in ng'ombe 'cow'.

Confusingly, in Francophone countries the initial syllables like nga-, nda-, mba- are often written with an apostrophe: N'djamena or N'Djamena. But this is quite misleading. The nasal is not a separate syllable. They're Ndja-me-na, Mbe-ki, Ndo-la, not N-dja-me-na, M-be-ki, N-do-la.