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Pronunciation of can’t | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Specific Languages |  | |
| Camundonguinho Triglot Senior Member Brazil Joined 4750 days ago 273 posts - 500 votes  Speaks: Portuguese*, English, Spanish Studies: Swedish | Message 25 of 68 09 February 2012 at 5:04pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
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CAN''T and CAN are not confused in American speech because,
CAN'T has no strong form, while CAN does. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
| Superking Diglot Groupie United States polyglutwastaken.blo Joined 6644 days ago 87 posts - 194 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: Mandarin | Message 26 of 68 09 February 2012 at 5:25pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
If I can offer a correction, "can't" and "can" are often confused in American speech. Another poster gave an example, and it's happened to me before. "Did you say CAN or CAN'T?" Also, I'm unsure as to what you're referring to when you say "strong form?" 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
| nway Senior Member United States youtube.com/user/Vic Joined 5416 days ago 574 posts - 1707 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish, Mandarin, Japanese, Korean | Message 27 of 68 09 February 2012 at 5:56pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
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Well, I can't recall ever having confused the two words, nor have I ever experienced anyone else confusing them.
Perhaps it's a matter of regional dialect? I'm from Southern California, if that makes any difference. Edited by nway on 09 February 2012 at 5:57pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
| Northernlights Groupie United Kingdom Joined 4676 days ago 73 posts - 93 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Italian, French | Message 28 of 68 09 February 2012 at 6:01pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
Hasn't CAN'T got a strong form? I know you said American speech, but how about: "Can I do that?" - weak "yes you can" - strong "I can?" - strong "No I can't" - strong I might well be wrong, but that's how it sounds to my ears 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
| LeadZeppelin Diglot Groupie United States Joined 5022 days ago 59 posts - 85 votes Speaks: English*, French Studies: Spanish | Message 29 of 68 09 February 2012 at 6:09pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
Perhaps. I'm from Missouri. Even before I ever started learning languages I noticed the problem between /can/ and /can't/.
Sure, and this would be an unambiguous use. But there are plenty of times where it's totally ambiguous from the context. An easy example is the sentence, "I can/can't do that." Sure, you might say, "I can't do that either," or even, "no, I can't do that." But people often try to say the least necessary when given the opportunity (hence "dunno" instead of "I don't know"). So it's not uncommon to just say "I can/can't do that," in which case, unless clearly articulated, could be interpreted either ways. In my experience, this is quite common. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
| Northernlights Groupie United Kingdom Joined 4676 days ago 73 posts - 93 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Italian, French | Message 30 of 68 09 February 2012 at 7:29pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
I didn't actually mean anything to do with the level of ambiguity, but whether "can't" had a strong version, and as far as I can tell, it does. This seems to be a difference between American and British because: I can do that = 'khn' weak or 'khan' strong I can't do that = khahrnt We change the vowel in SE England English, so that helps differentiate. It sounds like there's an R added into can't, I mean a non-rhotic R. In northern England they say "path" with a short A, whereas down south we say it as if there were an R after the A, so like "parth". It's like that in "can't' too, except that the northern as well as southern English also say "carnt" - non-rhotic R again of course. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
| LeadZeppelin Diglot Groupie United States Joined 5022 days ago 59 posts - 85 votes Speaks: English*, French Studies: Spanish | Message 31 of 68 09 February 2012 at 7:39pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
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Very interesting, I didn't know that at all. In the United States /can/ and /can't/ sound
exactly the same, except one has an extra consonant on the end, which, as noted, is often pretty silent when talking fast! Something this reminded me of while eating dinner is hearing the difference between /fifteen/ and /fifty/. "It's FIFTY dollars?!?!" "No sir, it's fifteeN" "Oh, that's better!" Happens all the time with natives in the US. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
| nway Senior Member United States youtube.com/user/Vic Joined 5416 days ago 574 posts - 1707 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish, Mandarin, Japanese, Korean | Message 32 of 68 09 February 2012 at 8:14pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
That's a good way of explaining it. In American English, there's also definitely a difference between a weak and a strong "can", and there's also only one form of "can't", but the difference is that "can't" and the strong form of "can" use the same vowel sound.
Spoken correctly, the two should be very easy to differentiate, as they emphasize different syllables. Although the gap in contextual usage is admittedly much wider, I don't think anyone ever confuses "desert" with "dessert", which are phonologically the same except for the syllables they stress. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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