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Kooyeen Posted 19 years ago
Speech & Pronunciation

Can - Can't

0 Hi,02br
00would you notice the difference between the answers in this conversation?02br
02br
01b00- Can I move my home path to another partition without formatting?02br
00- I think you can. / I think you can't.02b02br
02br
00I can distinguish between can and can't when can is not stressed (so it's "kun"), but I think there's no way to distinguish them when they are both stressed. I still remember when Ann Cook, in American Accent Training, said: "Now we are going to learn the difference between CAN and CAN." LOL02br
00My tendency is to release the T a little when I want to avoid being ambiguous, so:02br
01b00I think you can't02b00. - slight t at the end.02br
01b00No, you can't.02b00 - Unreleased t, glottal stop, call it what you want.02br
01b00You can't see it.02b00 - My tongue doesn't even try to do any kind of T02br
02br
00What's your opinion? Thank you in advance 050010id1
  

Top answer

02br 02br 00In "I think you can. "0-

— Anonymous

  • 02br 02br 00In "I think you can.
  • "0-
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9 Answers
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0For me, "can" is usually /k@n/ when unstressed, and "can't" is /k{nt?/ (unreleased /t/) or /k{O~?/ (no /n/ and a nasalized vowel).02br
02br
00In "I think you can. / I think you can't" the "can" is stressed so it is /k{n/, and it could be confused for "can't."0-
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0 01blockquote
01cite10Alienvoord12cite10In "I think you can. / I think you can't" the "can" is stressed so it is /k{n/, and it could be confused for "can't."12br
12blockquote
10Yeah, that's what I was referring to. I know the difference when "can" is not stressed, but the problem should be considered when "can" is stressed,
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0It's a problem a lot of native speakers have. 050010id1
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0 This is a particularly rough one!02br
02br
01i00can02i00 has just an 01b00n02b00 (of course), but it's a full 01b00n02b00. 01i00can't02i00 has an 01b00n02b00 that is terminated abruptly by an unreleased01b00 t02b00 (and it may even include a
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0 Well, yeah, maybe in "can" the final sound is a full "n" sound, and in "can't" the "n" might seem cut, stopped, or shorter. I don't know, maybe it's just me, but I think that difference is so small that maybe it only exists in theory. When people talk fast or in a lazy way (which happens most of the time in conversations), heh, you are not going to hear that very small difference anyway! 02
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0Tip for struggling students (before you throw in the towel 05000).02br
02br
00There is a very simple way of avoiding any possible confusion between 'can' and 'can't':02br
02br
00just pronounce them [05105205300] and [05401a05505605705802a00], re
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0Well, Kooyeen, here's how I pronounce them. I recorded what you wrote in your post. And, you'll also be able to see if you can understand my accent. 05102br
02br
00Here's the link:02br
05000 0230hrefhttp://ax6.org/freeupload/c1.wav11id1
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0 So, am I comprehensible? 0-
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1blockquote
01cite10Marvin A.12cite10Well, Kooyeen, here's how I pronounce them.12blockquote
10Thank you so much for reading my post. [y]02br
02br
00The way I see it, the difference between stressed 01u01b00can02b02u00 and 01b01u00can't02u02b00
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