can and can't

I have trouble with that as well. Other than asking "can or can't?", "can" sounds more like "kin" in California speech. Not sure if that helps with the dialect you're dealing with...but other dialects may have a distinction as well.

Sometimes context gives you clues.
"No, sorry, I can't do that" -- even if you couldn't hear the word at all, you can tell from context.

Even native speakers sometimes have to say "Did you say 'can' or 'can't'?" when the context isn't there to help.

They don't sound alike when I say them. I say "kan" (with a short a like man) and ka:nt (with a long a like father). Where I live (SE USA) people may say kan or k?n or k?n, and kant or ke?nt.

thank you so much. Some accents are trickier than others, I don't have this problem always, but I am not sure what accents make it more difficult for me to differenciate between can and can't specially among accents from USA which I am more used to. with accents from the UK I haven't had that problem.

dramirezag hello sometimes I am confused if a person is saying can or can't, specially in a normal conversation at a normal pace, can you give some tricks or something to help me.

Sometimes it's just the stress pattern that makes the difference (AmE). "can" is relatively unstressed. (I kin GO.) "can't" is relatively stressed. ( I KANT GO.) Stressed syllabl