You can or you can’t?

 

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One thing I have noticed that is a common problem with non-native English speakers is understanding the difference between can and can’t within a sentence. Maybe understanding the difference isn’t a problem for you, but have you ever had someone ask you for clarification about whether you said can or can’t? After all, it seems that there is only one small difference in sound—either a /t/ or no /t/ at the end. This can be especially difficult in situations like this where the next word starts with a /t/sound:

I can take you to the airport vs. I can’t take you to the airport.  In these examples, it is difficult to hear if the /t/ sound is coming from can’t or if it’s from the word “take” that comes right after it.

Fortunately, there is a little trick that might be able to help you. When native English speakers are listening to someone, they are not necessarily listening for the whole word; they are listening for the difference in the vowel sound in can and can’t. In regular speech and in context of the full sentence, the vowel sound is different for each word. Can actually sounds like “kin” and has a shorter vowel sound.  Can’t, however,  has a longer vowel sound which is pronounced more like the vowel a in cat.

Listen for the difference:

1. I can go. I can’t go.
2. You can do it. You can’t do it.
3. He can help me. He can’t help me.
4. We can tell you. We can’t tell you.
5. My friend can loan me money. My friend can’t loan me money.

Now let’s try those two tricky sentences again.

I can take you to the airport.

I can’t take you to the airport.

Now I will say five sentences using can and can’t.  See if you can tell which one I have said.

1. can    or    can’t  ?
2. can    or    can’t  ?
3. can    or    can’t  ?
4. can    or    can’t  ?
5. can    or    can’t  ?