As in French, the nasal consonants represented by the letters ⟨m n⟩ are deleted in coda position, and in that case the preceding vowel becomes phonemically nasal, e.g. in "genro" ('son-in-law'). But a nasal consonant subsists when it is followed by a plosive, e.g. in "cantar" ('to sing'). Vowel nasalization has also been observed non-phonemically as result of coarticulation, before heterosyllabic nasal consonants, e.g. in "soma" ('sum'). Hence, one speaks discriminatingly of "nasal" vowels (i.e. phonemically so) and "nasalized" vowels. Additionally, a nasal monophthong written ⟨ã⟩ exists independently of these processes, e.g. in "romã" ('pomegranate').