# Phonetics of can vs. can't



## Hotu Matua

I had always believed that the only phonetic difference between *can *and *can't* is the final /t/ sound.

As a matter of fact, my dictionaries confirm that impression: the only different sound being the final /t/.

However, sometimes I have had difficulties making myself understood, as it appears (at least in American English) that there is indeed a difference in the vowel value. The "a" of _*can* _is pronounced differently than the "a" of _*can't.*_ The a of *can *is more like the "a" in apple , and the a in _*can't*_ somewhat more similar to the "e" in bed.

I have ran into trouble making myself understood for the native English speaker. Sometimes I have had to resort to using _cannot _instead of _can't_, because people keeps asking me "_Do you mean you can or you can't?"_

However the emphasis I make on the final /t/ it seems there is something more in the vowel sound that I have not been able to figure out.

Please help me.


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## Thomas Tompion

Hotu Matua said:


> I had always believed that the only phonetic difference between *can *and *can't* is the final /t/ sound.
> 
> As a matter of fact, my dictionaries confirm that impression: the only different sound being the final /t/.
> 
> However, sometimes I have had difficulties making myself understood, as it appears (at least in American English) that there is indeed a difference in the vowel value. The "a" of _*can* _is pronounced differently than the "a" of _*can't.*_ The a of *can *is more like the "a" in apple , and the a in _*can't*_ somewhat more similar to the "e" in bed.
> 
> I have ran into trouble making myself understood for the native English speaker. Sometimes I have had to resort to using _cannot _instead of _can't_, because people keeps asking me "_Do you mean you can or you can't?"_
> 
> However the emphasis I make on the final /t/ it seems there is something more in the vowel sound that I have not been able to figure out.


 
In BE. Can is prounounced as you describe - a as in apple.

Can't is pronounced with an a as in car. In fact, if you put nt, like the nt in Kent, the county, on car, you get the correct pronunciation of can't.


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## Hotu Matua

Thank you very much, Thomas. 
So, as per your answer, there is indeed a difference in the sound of the vowel.
I wish dictionaries could show it. (Phonetic transcriptions of the Oxford and Longman dictionaries for advanced learners fail to show this difference).

I guess if some American member of the forum could also explain the pronunciation difference between _can _and _can't,_ in terms of the vowel sound.


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## Lora44

Yeah, I agree with Thomas' explanation of the pronuncation, for BE at any rate.

From my experience of speaking to foreigners learning English, you have to be careful in your pronuncation of 'can't', as it can very easily end up sounding like another altogether more offensive word beginning with 'c'. Adding the 'r' in, so it's like 'car-nt' solves the problem and is how the majority of English people would pronounce 'can't'.


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## Hotu Matua

Adding an "r"?  
Do you mean, adding an "r" the way people from Southern England pronounce it (which means, practically undetectable)? 
I understand that this would sort of lenghten the "a" sound. Did you mean that?


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## Lora44

Yeah, sorry. I don't mean adding an 'r'. I mean, pronouncing it as if there is an 'r' there, in the way that Thomas explained.


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## cyberpedant

In AE, the vowel sound in "can't" is the the same as the vowel sound of "bare," "lair," "sand," "plant" --some of which are pronounced differently (with a "longer" "ah" sound) in BE than in AE.
There are some areas of the US where "can't" = "cain't." The latter might be better understood -- although a few eyebrows might be raised in certain parts of the country.


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## panjandrum

Hey, hang on a moment.
You have only two views on BE pronunciation.
There is no difference in the vowel sounds of can/can't where I come from.
The OED lists no difference in pronunciation of the /a/ in can, cant (any version) or cannot (it doesn't give a specific pronunciation for can't).

Edit:  On reflection, I can hear the difference that TT and Lora44 refer to when I imagine a certain variety of English accent.


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## cyberpedant

In the US there is, indeed, a difference between the vowel sounds of "can"and "can't." And one would, indeed, be confused if one were to hear one sound substituted for the other. Vowel sounds change significantly from one place to another, although you wouldn't know it from listening to newscasts.


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## Hotu Matua

cyberpedant said:


> In the US there is, indeed, a difference between the vowel sounds of "can"and "can't." And one would, indeed, be confused if one were to hear one sound substituted for the other. Vowel sounds change significantly from one place to another, although you wouldn't know it from listening to newscasts.


 
Thank you very much, cyberpedant.
Could you then give us examples of how these vowels sound like in each case? 
For BE we already learnt in this thread that the "a" in _can't_ is equivalent to the "a" in _car_.
What would the equivalent be for AE?

In addition, what do you mean when you say that "you wouldn't know it from listening to the newscasts"? What would then be a more "formal" or "standard" way to pronounce the a of _can't _in the USA?


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## BoTrojan

Know this ... native speakers of American English can and do sometimes have the same problem understanding and making themselves understood in this context.  To the AE speakers out there, how many times have you said *can* or *can't* to someone, only to have to repeat yourself to make it clear whether you mean the one or the other?  It's not just an ESL problem in other words.  So don't feel bad. 

The best phoentic advice I can give you is that the way to emphasize the difference between the two is that the short "*a*" in *can* is held or pronounced longer than the short "*a*" in *can't*.  This is produced by the fact that *can* ends with a voiced consonant and *can't* ends with an unvoiced consonant.  If you then follow in each case by emphasizing the voiced nature of the "*n*" at the end of *can* and the unvoiced nature of the "*t*" at the end of *can't*, you should be able to hear the difference and also make yourself clear.


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## nichec

Lora44 said:


> Yeah, I agree with Thomas' explanation of the pronuncation, for BE at any rate.
> 
> From my experience of speaking to foreigners learning English, you have to be careful in your pronuncation of 'can't', as it can very easily end up sounding like another altogether more offensive word beginning with 'c'. Adding the 'r' in, so it's like 'car-nt' solves the problem and is how the majority of English people would pronounce 'can't'.


 
I pronounce it (can't) this way (the BE version) all the time, and sometimes my AE friends give me some very odd look


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## BoTrojan

Thomas Tompion said:


> In BE. Can is prounounced as you describe - a as in apple.
> 
> Can't is pronounced with an a as in car. In fact, if you put nt, like the nt in Kent, the county, on car, you get the correct pronunciation of can't.


 
See my other post for phoenetic guidance and explanations specific to American English.  Thomas' method works great for BE, but will get you nowhere in terms of AE.  

Such is life for the poor folks learning the English language in a world in which we have two fairly different versions of it


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## Hotu Matua

Thank you very much, BoTrojan. I feel better after your remark.

Any link to a site where we could listen to the sound would be welcomed.

Also, if someone has any dictionary that shows  a phonetic transcription of _can/can't_ that takes into account any difference in the vowel sound, I would also be happy to learn that at least someone has bothered to present it to learners of this beautiful language.


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## mjscott

The _a_ pronunciation in _can_ and _can't_ is the same _a _sound, to me. Brought up on the Pacific side....


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## panjandrum

Hotu Matua said:


> [...]
> For BE we already learnt in this thread that the "a" in _can't_ is equivalent to the "a" in _car_.
> [...]


Reiterating what I said above.
We have learnt that this is true in some variants of BE pronunciation.
The further you get from London, the more these vowel sounds converge ... on something completely different.


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## Hotu Matua

Oddly enough, and to make the thread more complex, I swear I have heard native AE speakers deleting the final /t/ of _can't _altogether, transferring all the weight of the difference between _can _and _can't_ to the "a" sound.

That is tricky!


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## BoTrojan

Hotu Matua said:


> Oddly enough, and to make the thread more complex, I swear I have heard native AE speakers deleting the final /t/ of _can't _altogether, transferring all the weight of the difference between _can _and _can't_ to the "a" sound.
> 
> That is tricky!


 
That is PRECISELY why we find ourselves having to repeat ourselves as often as we do:  "Excuse me, but did you say *can* or *can't*?"

Having said that, native speakers of AE are generally able to hear the difference with or without sufficient pronunciation of the final *t* in *can't *because most of us truly do say "*caaan*" versus "*can't*"  Even though it's the same vowel sound in terms of how you produce it phoenetically, the *a* is simply sung fractionally longer in the former word than in the latter.  Most native speakers haven't thought about this problem for one second, but this explanation sums it up in my view.


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## nichec

Hotu Matua said:


> Oddly enough, and to make the thread more complex, I swear I have heard native AE speakers deleting the final /t/ of _can't _altogether, transferring all the weight of the difference between _can _and _can't_ to the "a" sound.
> 
> That is tricky!


 
Yes, that's me! 

But I think it's not that difficult to make people understand you, providing the context and what follows after "can/can't"

I think it's rather a personal preference than regional difference.


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## Hotu Matua

Very well summarized, BoTrojan.

Now, if I go ahead saying "cannot" instead of "can't" (just as a way to avoid the difficulty) would that be fine or would I sound too phony or formal?


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## nichec

Hotu Matua said:


> Very well summarized, BoTrojan.
> 
> Now, if I go ahead saying "cannot" instead of "can't" (just as a way to avoid the difficulty) would that be fine or would I sound too phony or formal?


 
Nope! I have many friends who do that all the time. (it beats getting odd look because of the "can't/cxxt" confusion I guess )


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## Hotu Matua

Thank you, nichek. Now I've got a way to get round it.


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## BoTrojan

Good question.  I can't speak for our British friends, but in spoken English in the U.S., you would only rarely hear someone say "*cannot*" unless it's a very formal setting, such as a speech or the like, or unless the person was speaking in jest in one or another way.  That's my clear impression.

Incidentally ... you shouldn't have a problem with this or at least not as much of a problem as speakers of languages in which there are ONLY *un*voiced consonants.  German and Danish are examples.  To my ear, there is a huge difference between "*hat*" and "*had*," for example.  They are pronounced and sound completely different.  *Hat* ends with an unvoiced consonant and so the *a* sound is very short. *Had* ends with a voiced consonant and so the *a* sound is longer.  However, a typical German would hear and pronounce these words exactly the same way.  

I believe you have both voiced and unvoiced consonants in Spanish (I could easily be wrong as I don't know Spanish at all), so the barriers shouldn't be as severe in this area of phoenetics???


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## nichec

Hotu Matua said:


> Thank you, nichek. Now I've got a way to get round it.


 
Hmmmm.....nichek was beaten to death because of the confusion of can't/cxxt, and nichec survived.


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## river

According to Lynnequist at _separated by a common language_, "in standard BrE, c_an_ rhymes with _pan_ but _can't_ is pronounced like the AmE pronunciation of _Kant_"(cahn't). I get the impression that southern BrE is considered standard; that is, to quote Lynnequist,  'the most unmarked dialect' (i.e. the one that's least considered to be 'a dialect' in layperson's terms) or 'the prestige dialect'.  separated by a common language: *can't*

I can't say that I notice a difference in the pronounciation here:

pan, ran, man, can
pant, rant, slant, can't


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## Outsider

My impression is that at least for some Americans the vowels in_ can_ and _can't_ are the same [kæn], [kænt] (or even [ken] and [kent], in _very_ American accents).

But for some English speakers they are different: _can_ [kæn] vs. _can't_ [kant]. 

In Scottish English and some other accents of the British Isles, though, they are pronounced [kan] and [kant].

P.S. Here's a website where you can listen to these sounds. Click on "vowels", then "monophthongs", and then "front".


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## Hotu Matua

BoTrojan said:


> Good question. I can't speak for our British friends, but in spoken English in the U.S., you would only rarely hear someone say "*cannot*" unless it's a very formal setting, such as a speech or the like, or unless the person was speaking in jest in one or another way. That's my clear impression.
> 
> Incidentally ... you shouldn't have a problem with this or at least not as much of a problem as speakers of languages in which there are ONLY *un*voiced consonants. German and Danish are examples. To my ear, there is a huge difference between "*hat*" and "*had*," for example. They are pronounced and sound completely different. *Hat* ends with an unvoiced consonant and so the *a* sound is very short. *Had* ends with a voiced consonant and so the *a* sound is longer. However, a typical German would hear and pronounce these words exactly the same way.
> 
> I believe you have both voiced and unvoiced consonants in Spanish (I could easily be wrong as I don't know Spanish at all), so the barriers shouldn't be as severe in this area of phoenetics???


 
Indeed, our "a" would bear the same sound irrespective of the consonants that follow it. Vowels in Spanish have a rather permanent value. In that sense, I find the Scottish way to tell _can_ from _can't_ easier.

*River* already offered some words that would rhyme with can't in BE (pant, slant, Kant). Could you offer a similar set of words that rhyme with can't in American English?


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## Outsider

Hotu Matua said:


> *River* already offered some words that would rhyme with can't in BE (pant, slant, Kant). Could you offer a similar set of words that rhyme with can't in American English?


Those words also rhyme with _can't_ in AE, but their pronunciation is different from the BE pronunciation (with the possible exception of "Kant" in the mouths of more educated speakers, who will attempt to emulate the German pronunciation).


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## Hotu Matua

Mmm... I don't agree... I think BoTrojan wouldn't agree either...

If _pant _rhymed with _can't _I wouldn't have gone through any trouble with can't in America. It would have been so simple. Instead of the "p", I would have put a "c" or /k/ sound and that would have ended the problem.

Perhaps there are other examples of words that rhyme with the American _can't._


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## BoTrojan

OK, one more time, with feeling, in harmony ...

In American English, I contend that the *a* sounds in *can* and *can't* are the same with the exception of the duration.  This is produced by the physics and phonetics in English of one syllable words that end in voiced consonants versus those that end in unvoiced consonants.  Is it possible to get your throat, tongue, etc., to say the *a* in *can* exactly like the one you say in *can't*?  Yes, but it wouldn't be natural to do so.  Think "*pant*" and "*pan*," and you'll further get the idea.  Better yet, think "*pant*" and "*panned*."  Follow me?


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## Outsider

As a speaker of a Romance language, vowel length is not something that my ear is very attuned to.


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## river

Hotu Matua said:


> *River* already offered some words that would rhyme with can't in BE (pant, slant, Kant). Could you offer a similar set of words that rhyme with can't in American English?


 
Sorry for the confusion, Hotu. When I said "I can't hear a difference _here_", I meant here in my part of the United States.


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## modus.irrealis

I've actually thought about this before because I'm one of the people who don't pronounce the _t_ in _can't_ (unless I fully emphasize it or say it in isolation, and in that case it does rhyme with _pant_, _slant_, etc.) so it was puzzling to see how I differentiated the two. Basically for me, _can_ (except when emphasized) not only has a shorter vowel but a reduced one as well -- it's basically the same vowel as in unstressed _the_ -- and that doesn't happen with _can't_. There are other differences but they seem relatively minor.

But besides that, I think the most important way to distinguish them is that the overall stress and intonation pattern of sentences with _can_ and _can't_ are very different. Hotu Matua, perhaps that is affecting what other people are hearing.


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## panjandrum

river said:


> *[...]*http://separatedbyacommonlanguage.blogspot.com/2006/10/cant.html
> I can't say that I notice a difference in the pronounciation here:
> 
> pan, ran, man, can
> pant, rant, slant, can't


Thank you river.  A friend at last.  And thanks for the links too, which confirm that there are plenty of BE speakers whose can and can't have the same vowel sound.


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## Outsider

That's an excellent point that I don't think anyone had mentioned before, *Modus*. _Can_ is one of those English words that have different pronunciations when they are stressed and when they are unstressed.

My remarks above concerned the stressed form of _can_.

It's also possible that your _can't_ ends with an unreleased [t].


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## senora24

BoTrojan said:


> Know this ... native speakers of American English can and do sometimes have the same problem understanding and making themselves understood in this context. To the AE speakers out there, how many times have you said *can* or *can't* to someone, only to have to repeat yourself to make it clear whether you mean the one or the other? It's not just an ESL problem in other words. So don't feel bad.
> 
> The best phoentic advice I can give you is that the way to emphasize the difference between the two is that the short "*a*" in *can* is held or pronounced longer than the short "*a*" in *can't*. This is produced by the fact that *can* ends with a voiced consonant and *can't* ends with an unvoiced consonant. If you then follow in each case by emphasizing the voiced nature of the "*n*" at the end of *can* and the unvoiced nature of the "*t*" at the end of *can't*, you should be able to hear the difference and also make yourself clear.


 

I agree with this advice.  I am from Ohio so I pronounce the "a" in "can" and "can't" the same way, the difference is the letter at the end.  Any time that I have to ask someone to repeat themselves it is because I couldn't hear the last letter.  Hope this helps!


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## Hotu Matua

BoTrojan said:


> OK, one more time, with feeling, in harmony ...
> 
> Is it possible to get your throat, tongue, etc., to say the *a* in *can* exactly like the one you say in *can't*? Yes, but it wouldn't be natural to do so. Think "*pant*" and "*pan*," and you'll further get the idea. Better yet, think "*pant*" and "*panned*." Follow me?


 
Thanks for your efforts and patience.
You might be interested to know  that "getting my throat, tongue, etc. to say _a _in _can _exactly like the one you say in _can't_" is the *natural *thing to do for me an other 600 millions of Romance language.
For us it would be unnatural to change the value of that "a" sound depending on the voiced or unvoiced nature of the following consonant. We don't change the "a" sound between _pan_ and _pant _or _panned_, and we would not certainly change the sound between _can _and _can't_.​In any case, my initial wondering was why phonetic transcriptions on dictionaries, which in other cases are so explicit about AE/BE differences, do not seem to account for the deletion of "t" and the prolongation of the "a" sound (or whatever the phenomenon is called; phonetic symbols, anyway, are abundant and try to cover all posible variations). I

If we rely on the phonetic transcriptions of American dictionaries, we will never ever get to the right pronunciation of this specific word.

If someone knows how to type ASCII characters to represent the sound of this American _can't,_ or if otherwise you have found words that rhyme with this version of _can't _(not with the one pronounced in perfect isolation and serenity, but with the one uttered in a conversation at normal speed) please help.


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## JamesM

As others have said, I wonder if it's not the stress and phrasing of the sentence rather than the pronunciation of the word that's causing the problem. I can quite often be pronouncing words correctly in French, but the "melody" I "sing" them to is unexpected and the result is that I'm not understood. Once I've been corrected, I ask which word was mis-pronounced. Often the answer is "The pronunciation is fine; I just couldn't understand you because of the way you said the sentence."

You might be looking in the wrong place for the answer.

I, for one, don't think we drop the "t" in "can't" in AE. If we do, we'll get questioned by our fellow native speakers along the lines of "did you say 'can' as in 'able to' or 'can't' as in 'cannot'?", especially if we use an intonation in the sentence that implies "can't" but say, "can" (no matter how drawn out the "a" sound is.  )


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## Hotu Matua

Thank you, JamesM.
As you say, the intonation of the sentence may determine the meaning.


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## cyberpedant

> Originally Posted by *Hotu Matua*
> Could you then give us examples of how these vowels sound like in each case?
> For BE we already learnt in this thread that the "a" in _can't_ is equivalent to the "a" in _car_.
> What would the equivalent be for AE?





> Originally Posted by *river* *
> [...]*
> I can't say that I notice a difference in the pronounciation here:
> 
> pan, ran, man, can
> pant, rant, slant, can't


  I would only rhyme the “can” above with the other three words if it were the noun.

  There’s the _can_. _Can _you see it? 
  Sure, I _can_ see it. _Can’t_ you?

  In these four sentences there are three different pronunciations of the vowel represented by the letter “a.” The first one, “There’s the _can_,” rhymes with (AE) man. The second, “_Can_ you see it?” has the same vowel sound as “cat,” or “hat.” (Notice, this is not the same as “cot” or “hot.”)  In the third sentence, “Sure, I _can_ see it,” the vowel is completely elided (“Ikn”). In the fourth sentence, “_Can’t_ you?” the vowel is the same as in the first.



> Originally Posted by *panjandrum
> *
> The OED lists no difference in pronunciation of the /a/ in can, cant (any version) or cannot (it doesn't give a specific pronunciation for can't).


  I guess the OED, having been composed at Oxford, which is certainly not located on the western side of the Atlantic, might here be guilty of a little “empirism.”




> Originally Posted by *Hotu Matua*_
> In addition, what do you mean when you say that "you wouldn't know it from listening to the newscasts"?_


  Most North American newscasters speak a more or less standardized Midwestern English. 


> _   What would then be a more "formal" or "standard" way to pronounce the a of can't in the USA?_


As I’m a New Yorker, I would prefer the system I’ve described above. But since you haven’t heard it, there’s no way to be sure you’ve gotten it.

  In a linguistics class at Williams, we discussed the following sentence: “Mary is merry because she will be married.” Those of us from the east pronounced those three vowels differently. Midwesterners (and others) pronounced them all the same. Conclusion: you have it or you don’t.

  A good grounding in the IPA would help you, but even that is useless if you haven’t clearly heard and practiced the differences in the sounds


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## liliput

I teach Spanish speakers, and they tend to have two problems with _can't:_ One is due to the fact that that Spanish has (less than?) half as many vowel sounds as English, so they have to learn the extended "ar" sound (as I pronounce it). The link provided by outsider is good, I also recommend listening to and practising English as much as possible in order to get used to the sounds.
The second problem is that many Spaniards (I don't know about Mexicans) have a tendency to "eat their words" and so they don't pronounce the "t". As a result, it's often difficult to tell if they are saying can or can't. *The most important thing is to enunciate the "t", then you should be understood, however you pronounce the vowel.*



panjandrum said:


> Reiterating what I said above.
> We have learnt that this is true in some variants of BE pronunciation.
> The further you get from London, the more these vowel sounds converge ... on something completely different.


 
I don't think this is correct. It may be the case that in Ireland and Scotland _can_ and _can't_ are pronounced with the same vowel sound, but I've lived most of my life in various parts of England, almost all of them a long way from London, and I've only ever used and heard "can" and "cahn't".


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## tom_in_bahia

river said:


> According to Lynnequist at _separated by a common language_, "in standard BrE, c_an_ rhymes with _pan_ but _can't_ is pronounced like the AmE pronunciation of _Kant_"(cahn't). I get the impression that southern BrE is considered standard; that is, to quote Lynnequist,  'the most unmarked dialect' (i.e. the one that's least considered to be 'a dialect' in layperson's terms) or 'the prestige dialect'.  separated by a common language: *can't*
> 
> I can't say that I notice a difference in the pronounciation here:
> 
> pan, ran, man, can
> pant, rant, slant, can't



For me, there's no difference in the second row, but the first row only has no difference if you are referring to the can you store tuna in. Otherwise, my _can_ in "Can you help me?" is not pronounced as pan, ran or man for me.

For me, can (the modal) is pronounced like the man's name "Ken" and can't has a highly tense, nasalized open-E-ish (I wouldn't say it's ae, maybe a combo of openE and schwa, or openE and U [hood]) vowel with an almost totally glottalized (a.k.a. unreleased) t at the end. But, that would be the same for me for pant, rant, and slant. I realized that I don't say can (tin) and can (be able to) the same when I said the rhyme:

_Can you can a can like a canner can can a can?_


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## Outsider

Outsider said:


> But for some English speakers they are different: _can_ [kæn] vs. _can't_ [kant].


I think what I wrote here was wrong. I should have checked in a dictionary first. 

The British pronunciations are, I believe _can_, [k@n] and _can't_ [kant], where "@" is a schwa or schwa-like sound. This is the same as the unstressed AmE pronunciation of _can_.



			
				liliput said:
			
		

> The second problem is that many Spaniards (I don't know about Mexicans) have a tendency to "eat their words" and so they don't pronounce the "t".


That is probably because the phonotactics of Spanish does not allow consonant clusters at the end of words. Spanish words can only end with *vowel* or *vowel + consonant*. Making them pronounce *vowel + consonant + consonant* is difficult. Many Spanish speakers will tend to solve the problem by dropping the last consonant.


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## jennball

In the midwestern U.S., I hear "can't" as "scant" without the s. The pronunciation of "can" depends on where it comes in the sentence and how much stress it gets.
   "You can't do that."  "Yes, I can!"   Both a's have the same sound.
   "I can do it tomorrow."  Can sounds like ken or kin unless the speaker 
        is speaking slowly.
 Also, in the south, "I cain't" is sometimes heard.
Sorry, some of this might be repetition, I only skimmed the 3 pages of posts.


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## modus.irrealis

Outsider said:


> It's also possible that your _can't_ ends with an unreleased [t].


I think the examples in that topic (like postpone) do, but in general, I don't pronounce a t after n (unless it precedes a stressed vowel) -- and it's not just limited to those phrases with very little stress that give rise to things like "wanna", but in normal speech "winter" and "winner" are homophones for me. Usually context makes it clear which is meant but I remember one radio commercial where both made decent sense and I wasn't the only one who wasn't sure which they meant to say.

But maybe what I just wrote is true only when _can't_ is followed by another word -- it seems when it comes last in a phrase, it does have an unreleased t, since in that position _can_ has it's full vowel but _can't_ still sounds different. This gets more and more complicated the more I think about it.


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## cyberpedant

jennball 					   : "In the midwestern U.S."..."You can't do that."  "Yes, I can!"   Both a's have the same sound.

As I mentioned in a previous post, those sounds are different for a New Yorker.
Here's a link that might shed some light on this problem:

(Linguistics 001 Lecture 9 Pronunciation of English)
http://www.ling.upenn.edu/courses/Fall_2003/ling001/English.html

Wikipedia has lots of links under "Phonetics."


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## domangelo

the "a" in "can" is similar in both AE and BE. The "a" in "can't" is quite different in both dialects, and in both cases, is quite distinct from the "a" in "can". BoTrojan's comment about the "n" is significant. The "n" in "can" is the final sound, and it trails off, the "n" in "can't" is not the final sound, even though you may not hear the "t", a place is held for it, therefore, the "n" is truncated. If you are having trouble making the sound of "can't" (with an a as in bare, care, etc.) then pronounce the "t", or say "cannot". It won't cause alarm, I assure you.


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## Scalloper

liliput said:


> I don't think this is correct. It may be the case that in Ireland and Scotland _can_ and _can't_ are pronounced with the same vowel sound, but I've lived most of my life in various parts of England, almost all of them a long way from London, and I've only ever used and heard "can" and "cahn't".


 
In the north east it's common to hear "cannot" with the stress on the first syllable


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## liliput

Scalloper said:


> In the north east it's common to hear "cannot" with the stress on the first syllable


 
I heard "cannae" in the North East.


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## Scalloper

There's that too, but both with the "can" vowel


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## Arrius

I can confirm that the majority of British + Irish accents have a soft *a *in _can't_ like the Americans as in b*a*nner_. Can't_ in Standard British RP has a long *a* as in c*a*rt. It long ago struck me that one might easily misunderstand an American, an Irishman or someone from Yorkshire or Somerset when they say_ can't_ in a noisy environment. 
The Scots have _can _and _canna_ (as in "Ye canna tak' the breeks off a highland man") both also with a soft *a*. 
English actors who make it to Hollywood, I have noticed, always seem to use this soft *a *in can't and bath (as opposed to ba:th) even when they are playing English aristocrats from the Home Counties. This includes Charlie Chaplin who, coming from a humble background in London's East End, must have used the long *a* for can't in his youth.


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## BoTrojan

Hotu Matua said:


> Please help me.


 
Hota Matua .... are you sorry you asked?  Wow, just imagine the feeling of utter confusion, exasperation and hopelessness our poor, dear non-English speaking friends must be feeling over the complexity and sheer number of the conflicting responses to this seemingly innocent, ostensibly simple question.  I have to admit that I've contributed to and accelerated this sad state of affairs myself.

Let's get back to basics for the sake of the true intended beneficiaries of this forum:  those trying to understand and make themselves understood in English, even though English is not their first language.  In this thread, we are talking about two related but different problems:  being understood and understanding.  Understanding is by far the harder of the two problems to solve within the context of an online (written) forum.  In terms of being understood, I'd recommend the following:  

Without doubt, the simplest resolution to your problem, Hota Matua, is to use "*can*" in the affirmative and "*cannot*" in the negative.  If you think that sounds too unnatural in given circumstances, go ahead and use "*can't*," but just be sure to fully enunciate and express the "*t*" at the end.  That should ensure you'll be understood by the vast majority of English speakers regardless of their dialects, accents, races, creeds, colors, political affiliations, food preferences, or whatever.

Learning to hear the difference between *can* and *can't* is, as I've said, harder and is part and parcel of a larger problem in English phonetics as compared to the majority of other languages:  one-syllable words ending in voiced versus unvoiced consonants.  My (only half-in-jest) advice to you is this:  find a native speaker of English and spend time with that person, listening to him/her repeatedly say the following pairs of words:

Had ... Hat
Dog ... Dock
Peg ... Peck
Pad ... Pat
Cad ... Cat
Tug ... Tuck
Panned ... Pant
Hag ... Hack
Tag ... Tack

The difference you'll hear between the words in these pairs is -- phonetically and physiologically -- the same difference you'll hear between *can* and *can't*.  It's true that many English speakers, perhaps particularly Americans, eat rather than enunciate the final consonants in words like this.  But the difference produced in the vowel sound itself -- especially its duration -- in conjunction with either a voiced or an unvoiced consonant, is virtually unavoidable phonetically, whether or not these final consonants are clearly uttered.  

Now to really hear the phonetic implications of voiced versus unvoiced consonants at the end of one syllable words, have a native German speaker repeat the same word pairs over and over again.  If the person is typical, you won't hear any differences in the word pairs.  Relative to the English speaker, the differences should be very noticeable to you.

Finally, unless otherwise provoked (a definite possibility ...) this will be my last word on the subject.

Cheers to all!


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## TrentinaNE

From Merriam Webster: *'kan* and *'kant*, with variations following each. I grew up in the Chicago area and that's the way I've always said them. They rhyme and the* t* is pronounced. 

Elisabetta


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## sound shift

The matter is complicated by the reduced form of "can", which occurs frequently. If I say "I think I can get it for you by the weekend", the vowel in "can" is a schwa, because "can" is an unstressed syllable (I don't know if this has already been mentioned; I haven't got time to read all the posts). I don't think there is a reduced form of "can't".


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## Arrius

By the way, do Americans and Irishmen pronounce the word *cant *(_insincere talk about religion or morals_, among other definitions) the same as *can't*?


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## panjandrum

Arrius said:


> By the way, do Americans and Irishmen pronounce the word *cant *(_insincere talk about religion or morals_, among other definitions) the same as *can't*?


I do.
I found jennball's can't = scant without the s example interesting.  That's how it is for me.
Can = scan without the s.
Can't = scant without the s.
There is a marginal difference in the length of the a, but not as far as I can tell in its sound.
Arrius's can't with the a of cart is also an excellent comparison for me. That is exactly how I hear the SE English version of the vowel.


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## sound shift

panjandrum said:


> Arrius's can't with the a of cart is also an excellent comparison for me. That is exactly how I hear the SE English version of the vowel.


That pronunciation occurs in the Midlands as well as the South-East of England.


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## mplsray

Arrius said:


> By the way, do Americans and Irishmen pronounce the word *cant *(_insincere talk about religion or morals_, among other definitions) the same as *can't*?


 
I do.


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## panjandrum

While looking around for some information on this vowel sound feature of BE pronunciation I came across THIS British Library SITE, which discusses something it calls the "Bath vowel".  It seems to me that this is the phenomenon we are talking about here.  What do the English English-speakers think?

(Homepage for British Library Language and Literature resources)


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## liliput

panjandrum said:


> While looking around for some information on this vowel sound feature of BE pronunciation I came across THIS British Library SITE, which discusses something it calls the "Bath vowel". It seems to me that this is the phenomenon we are talking about here. What do the English English-speakers think?
> 
> (Homepage for British Library Language and Literature resources)


 
I think words like bath, path, grass, etc. are a different kettle of fish (a good nonsensical idiom for the English learners). I pronounce all these words with a short "a", as in pant, scant, rant, etc. The long pronuciation of bath (barth), etc I consider to be mostly restricted to Southern England and RP accents.
Can't is a contraction so it doesn't fall into the same category and I have always known it to be pronounced "carn't", although I can't see any logical reason why.  I reiterate that this pronunciation of _can't_ is by no means restricted to the South East of England or to RP accents. It's common all over England.


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## Arrius

Thanks for the interesting article on isoglosses, *panji*.
I can't explain your pronunciation of _can't_, but I have a theory about mine: /ka:nt/, (I don't like using an R in phonetic transcriptions where none is pronounced because it is apt to confuse the Americans or people from Dorset etc). I think the A is longer, a bath-A, because the word is a contraction of two syllables, can not, which naturally took longer than one syllable to pronounce and the habit still lingers on although some letters have fallen away. The same thing has happened with shan't /sha:nt/ where the original _shall _(not) had a short vowel, and won't /wo:nt/ _(will not_) where the vowel in _will _was also short.
Also perhaps plastic, spastic. phatic, aphakic and suchlike scientific words have a short, soft A because the learned people who originally borrrowed them were aware of the short vowel in the original Greek.
By the way, *panj,* do you have a link to a good IPA character site? I've never been able to find one.


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## mally pense

Hotu Matua said:


> Very well summarized, BoTrojan.
> 
> Now, if I go ahead saying "cannot" instead of "can't" (just as a way to avoid the difficulty) would that be fine or would I sound too phony or formal?


 
If it was good enough for John McEnroe _(US tennis player famous partly for saying "You *cannot* be serious" to umpires)_, it's surely good enough for the rest of us.

Seriously, the effect of saying "cannot" instead of "can't" might be to emphasise the negative as in the John McEnroe example. However, it can also be used for clarification, so you will be pleased to hear that if someone asks you "_Do you mean 'you can' or 'you can't'?"_, a perfectly acceptable reply would be "I mean 'I _cannot'_". _(Acceptable in my part of the world anyway)._

While I'm here, let me say that I'm firmly in the can/carnt camp regarding pronunciation, but I do recognise Panjandrum's pronunciation _(distinguished just by the final 't')_ and all the variations of American pronunciation that have been described above _(Edit: page one only!)_. To a certain extent you need to know your target audience perhaps, but I would hazard to say that most speakers of English would at least recognise the vowel-changed pronunciation even if it did sound non-local to them, and it is perhaps better to make the differentiation rather than relying on just the final 't' to make the distinction. Or use "cannot" of course.

EDIT: Sorry if this appears a little out of sequence - I read down to the bottom of Page 1 without realising there were another four pages to go!


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