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Pronunciation of can’t | ||
Tags: Pronunciation | English | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Specific Languages |  | |
| nway Senior Member United States youtube.com/user/Vic Joined 5225 days ago 574 posts - 1707 votes  Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish, Mandarin, Japanese, Korean | Message 17 of 68 07 February 2012 at 9:52pm | IP Logged | ||
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I actually realized just a bit ago that the glottal stop only applies to situations where "can't" precedes a consonant. When preceding a vowel, such as "can't you", I do indeed aspirate the "t", although it sounds more like the "ch" in "much" than the "t" that would initiate a word like "taught" or "telephone". Edited by nway on 07 February 2012 at 9:54pm 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| LeadZeppelin Diglot Groupie United States Joined 4831 days ago 59 posts - 85 votes Speaks: English*, French Studies: Spanish | Message 18 of 68 08 February 2012 at 3:41pm | IP Logged | ||
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Don't be too worried about this. Even between native speakers we misunderstand can and
can't all the time. I've had to ask other native speakers countless countless times: "Did you say can or can't?" The fact is that we just get lazy and don't pronounce the /t/ very hard. Usually from context you can pick up the meaning, but when the context is ambiguous, you just have to ask for clarification. In other words, it's not just you. We talk lazily. :) 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Northernlights Groupie United Kingdom Joined 4485 days ago 73 posts - 93 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Italian, French | Message 19 of 68 08 February 2012 at 4:11pm | IP Logged | ||
So true! That's what makes understanding foreign languages so hard; if everybody spoke clearly and enunciated every sound it'd be an awful lot easier. The only person I can think of who always used to say 'can't' extremely clearly was John MacEnroe. Does anyone else remember how he used to exclaim, "You canaaahhht be serious!" whenever the umpire disagreed with him, which was pretty much all the time? lol. Edited by Northernlights on 08 February 2012 at 4:12pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Superking Diglot Groupie United States polyglutwastaken.blo Joined 6453 days ago 87 posts - 194 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: Mandarin | Message 20 of 68 08 February 2012 at 6:02pm | IP Logged | ||
That word "lazy" in the post kept me from giving this a thumbs up, but you are totally right about the "did you say can or can't" thing. Oftentimes words intersect in an unexpected way, making it hard to tell two rather related words apart. In L.A. Spanish, even native speakers often can't tell if someone said "dos" (two) or "doce" (twelve), especially in phrases like "dos/doce y media" when speaking fast. In other words, mistaking can for can't and vice versa doesn't mean there's a problem with your English -- on the contrary, it could mean just the opposite. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| anjathilina Diglot Newbie United States Joined 6414 days ago 33 posts - 106 votes Speaks: English*, Japanese Studies: Spanish, Mandarin Studies: Hindi | Message 21 of 68 08 February 2012 at 6:46pm | IP Logged | ||
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This discussion is reminding me of the movie Singin' in the Rain.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q3OkXi5osfU 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Lucky Charms Diglot Senior Member Japan lapacifica.net Joined 6759 days ago 752 posts - 1711 votes Speaks: English*, Japanese Studies: German, Spanish | Message 22 of 68 09 February 2012 at 12:09am | IP Logged | ||
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In regions where the vowels are the same and the "t" of "can't" becomes a glottal stop,
as in my native California (the accent you will hear in most Hollywood productions), native speakers tell the difference not by the sounds, but by the stress. Modals like "can" (also "should", the auxiliary "have", etc.) aren't usually stressed, but negative words (can't, shouldn't, etc.) always are. Here's a more familiar example: I have seen it. (aiv SINɪʔ) - 1 accent I haven't seen it. (ai HÆVNʔ SINɪʔ)- 2 accents similarly: I can go. (aikn GO) - 1 accent I can't go. (ai KÆNʔ GO) - 2 accents As to whether the vowels are the same, in this accent they are the same in isolation, but in practice the /æ/ of "can" is often reduced (to a schwa or similar) because the word is unaccented. This might not be the most technical explanation, but it's worked well for my students. I hope it helps. Edited by Lucky Charms on 09 February 2012 at 12:15am 3 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| tarvos Super Polyglot Winner TAC 2012 Senior Member China likeapolyglot.wordpr Joined 4517 days ago 5310 posts - 9399 votes Speaks: Dutch*, English, Swedish, French, Russian, German, Italian, Norwegian, Mandarin, Romanian, Afrikaans Studies: Greek, Modern Hebrew, Spanish, Portuguese, Czech, Korean, Esperanto, Finnish | Message 23 of 68 09 February 2012 at 1:19am | IP Logged | ||
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I definitely pronounce them both differently. Then again, I was taught the British pronunciation and that one definitely makes a quite obvious distinction.
I find the American way of saying it sounds distinctly "flat" to my ears. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Serpent Octoglot Senior Member Russian Federation serpent-849.livejour Joined 6407 days ago 9753 posts - 15779 votes 4 sounds Speaks: Russian*, English, FinnishC1, Latin, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese Studies: Danish, Romanian, Polish, Belarusian, Ukrainian, Croatian, Slovenian, Catalan, Czech, Galician, Dutch, Swedish | Message 24 of 68 09 February 2012 at 9:21am | IP Logged | ||
And boring too:) 1 person has voted this message useful |
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