Chapter 1: What are three pronunciation tips for 'can' and 'can't'?
This is an All Ears English podcast, episode 2577, can versus can't, three pronunciation tips. Welcome to the All Ears English podcast, downloaded more than 200 million times. Are you feeling stuck with your English?
We'll show you how to become fearless and fluent by focusing on connection, not perfection with your American host, Aubrey Carter, the IELTS whiz, and Lindsay McMahon, the English adventurer. coming to you from Arizona and Colorado, USA. To get real-time transcripts right on your phone and create your personalized vocabulary list, try the All Ears English app for iOS and Android.
Start your seven-day free trial at allearsenglish.com forward slash app. Do you find yourself wondering if someone just said can or can't? These two words can be super confusing. Get our top tips to stop struggling today. English is part of how you're evaluated, whether you like it or not, in meetings, in interviews, in negotiations.
The question isn't whether your English is okay or good enough. It's whether it's working for you. Is it getting you the promotions and the salary raises that you deserve? If not, this is the year to do something about it.
Our free two-minute fluency quiz shows you your true English level, B1, B2, or C1, and where you can level up for real-world success for your career or your global life in English. Take the quiz now for free at allearsenglish.com slash fluency score. That's allearsenglish.com slash f-l-u-e-n-c-y-s-c-o-r-e. Lindsay, can you snap your fingers? I can, Aubrey. Yes, I can. I cannot. I can prove it.
No, I've never been able to. I've tried. There's like a little bit of sound. No, I was always very impressed when gym teachers in school could do the whistle with their fingers. I could never do that. I always thought that was amazing. Oh, I'm curious because today we got a great question about the pronunciation of can and can't. So I just wanted a question. I could use can.
But yeah, let's read this question. I am so excited. This is a very common error and it's difficult often for language learners to hear the difference and also to pronounce the difference. So we're going to help you with both today. All right. So I'll go ahead and read the question.
So this question comes from Francis from Spain, and they say, I'm a big fan of your podcast, and I truly appreciate the way you break down English in a fun and practical way. Your episodes have helped me improve my listening and my speaking skills tremendously. Well, that's great to hear, Francis. We appreciate you.
I wanted to suggest a topic for a future episode, the difference between can and can't in spoken English. Sometimes it's really hard to hear the difference between them, especially in fast speech or in different accents. It would be great to hear your tips or strategies on how to recognize and use these two words more confidently in real life conversations.
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Chapter 2: How can I identify the difference between 'can' and 'can't' in conversation?
Not good. So we're going to stop this right now, Aubrey. Exactly. But be sure to hit follow, guys. If you're not following the podcast, you are likely missing amazing episodes, bonus content. So wherever you find your podcasts, search All Ears English and hit follow. Yeah.
And I'm excited to get into this because we don't do too many pronunciation episodes, but I'm glad we're doing this one today. So very common issue. I'm not surprised we got this question at all. Yes. Yeah. So let's dive in. It's interesting. The difference between can and can't is mostly about vowel reduction and stress, not the T. A lot of students think it's more about the T at the end.
We don't always pronounce the T. So you can't just be listening for T or not. There's more to it than that. Yeah, I feel like you should almost say that again, because it's so important what you said. It's more about what? It's more about... It's more about the vowel reduction and the stress of the word and not really about the sound of the T on can't and the fact that it's missing on can. Yeah.
Yeah. So let's take a look at can then. What do we need to know then about stress, vowel reduction and stress when it comes to can? So most of the time can is actually unstressed and that vowel sound is reduced and it sounds more like can. It becomes a schwa sound. I can help you. She can drive. If you listen to that, I'm actually saying she can drive. There's no a sound. It's reduced. Yeah.
And of course, when we introduce can, as we're going to go into this now, can, we say can, right? We don't say couldn't, right? That's what's really tricky, right? When we just say the word can. Oh, these sound so different. Can, can't. But that's when we're actually speaking. That's not how it's pronounced. Or there would be an exception.
One exception to that would be if you're on that phone talking about that Airbnb weekend in the mountains and you say, oh, I can't come. And your friend says, you can or can't? And then you might say, I can come. Right. And we're going to get into that because sometimes can is stressed and it does sound different. So this is most of the time, like we said, it's unstressed.
It does sound different when it's stressed. And sometimes you do need to stress it for meaning to clarify. But when it's unstressed, it's just in a regular sentence. It's a schwa sound, that vowel. Good. Love it. Okay. Now let's talk about can't with a T. Yeah. So can't is stressed more than can, and the vowel is stronger and clearer.
It does sound different in American English and British English. How does it sound in American English, Lindsay? We just say can't, right? Can't. That a, short a. But in British English, it's usually the long a, like car, can't, right? It sounds a little different. And it depends on the speaker in the US as well.
Just like some people say aunt, you might hear someone say can't like if they're very polished and that's very, but pretty rare in the US, it's usually can't. Yeah, exactly. British English, usually to the American ear, always sounds much fancier and more elevated, right? But we don't ever change it to that schwa. That's just for can.
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Chapter 3: What are common mistakes when using 'can' and 'can't'?
So this is interesting. And it is so tricky because often context won't help you. Like we were saying, if someone says, you know, you can come to the cabin. I don't know if they mean you can come or you can't come based on the context. It's all based on the vowel sound. So that's why we're often clarifying, right? So that's why I'm so glad we got this question today.
Incredibly important for our listeners, right? General success in life, right? And we want to point you guys to a couple other amazing episodes if you missed them. We did some great pronunciation episodes this summer. 2466, picky pronunciation part one, should I use two or three syllables? And then a follow-up, a part two was 2470 about words that have three and four syllables.
So go back, check those out on the app. You could search that episode, those episode numbers to find them if you're looking for more pronunciation episodes. Yeah. And if you love the way we teach pronunciation, I'd suggest you check out our course. Aubrey, this is a new course, Global English Pronunciation.
What's different about our course is that we focus on showing you how English is a stress time language as opposed to a syllable time language. So we give you the foundation of the language. And yes, we teach you key sounds, but we don't start there. We start with kind of changing your understanding of the language itself. And that's a key that a lot of courses tend to miss. Yes.
It's been really fun. The course has been out just long enough that students are starting to finish it and give us this amazing feedback. It's been really fun hearing from students about how much they've learned, how much they loved the course. So it truly is. I've been really impressed with this course. Really cool. So guys, go to allersenglish.com slash pronunciation to get in there.
And Aubrey, as always, great being on the mic together. You have a good rest of your day. You too. See you next time. Bye. Thanks for listening to All Ears English. Would you like to know your English level? Take our two minute quiz. Go to allearsenglish.com forward slash fluency score. And if you believe in connection, not perfection, then hit subscribe now to make sure you don't miss anything.
See you next time.
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