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stranger
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OP
stranger
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hi everyone on Wordsmith.
I am a chinese student, i have priviously raise a quetion here on Wordsmith .
this is my second time.
i found a interesting phenomenon in English, in fact,not i
found it, all of u English speaker speaks it,and u must be familiar with it.
that is the pronunciation difference between "can" and "can't".
as we know, "can't" is the short form of " can not" the pronunciation of
it shoud be can plus a plosion 't'. but in the real life, the plosion 't' is
hard to be heard and hard to distinguish two words.and i saw many movie and
tv programs which is performed by Americans or English,u show the difference
be "can"and "can't" is not by the last plosion 't', u r using the tones (tonation?)
to distinguish "can" and "can't"(the basic charateristic feature in chinese) , which "can" using the first tone(in the official
Chinese) , and "can't" using the 4th tone (also official Chinese);
can u all English lover give some comment about my humble remarkes?
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Carpal Tunnel
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When we are not stressing the words can will normally sound more like kn with very little vowel sound and can't will have the full vowel sound but with just a stop at the end. If we are stressing the word, usually to draw the listener's attention to that specific word for whatever reason, can will be pronounced with the full vowel sound and can't will be pronounced with either a slight popping sound (made with the tongue pulling sharply off the hard palate just behind the teeth) or else with the same stop as in the unstressed version. In either case in the stressed version the vowel sound in can't will be shorter in time duration than the vowel sound in can.
Does this make any sense?
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stranger
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OP
stranger
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IT IS VERY DETAILED.
but in my hearing, i often hear they are pronunced the same syllable, (stopping plosion 't' can be ignored ),i hear the same syllable and different tones.
i remember when i was little ,we studied british kind of english, i remeber 'can' and 'can't' is different in vowels.
and now i know that American speak the same vowels.
and i still think that all of u just using a "stressly go down " tonation in "can't" and a "smooth" tonation in "can"
"stressly go down ""smooth" is just my saying, i m sorring that i dont know the correct term
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"stressly go down ""smooth"
I just tried that and I do hear a tone difference. We don't normally listen for tonal differences as much as you would. I know I've heard Spanish speakers saying can't and having it sound like a stressed can. It takes practice to hear a language that is as different from your native language as English is from Chinese. All I can say is keep working on it and good luck.
And keep coming back here and your English will improve as you practice.
Also, aside from some linguistic terms used by professional linguists, I don't think we really have the language to describe the differences in stress that you noticed and referred to as "stressly go down" and "smooth".
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stranger
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haha, official chinese has 4 tones.
Yue(Catonese, spoken in GuangDong, the HongKong people speak) has 7? <----my daily lauguage, i havnt studied that,so not very clear.
hakka,<---my family lauguage has 6?i havnt studied that,either.
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Aji, I have been repeating can/can't over and over in different sentences and I have achieved two things. The first is that I do notice there is often a difference in tone, the second is that my dog is looking at me funny, wondering if his master has lost her mind.
I am sure there is a word to describe this (the tone thingy not the dog thingy). Maybe one of our learned members can come up with it.
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old hand
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Welcome, Aji!...thanks for posing an intriguing question. I do find that, while I mean for can't to end in a crisp "T" with my tongue clicking behind my teeth, for some reason it seems to die at the roof of my mouth in a softer tone! And, I also find, that if I pronounce both words in succession I pronounce a harder "T" if I say can't first...can't/can. The other way...can/can't...the "T" tends to soften and fade. Fascinating! Now these two simple words will never sound the same for me again! And I'm sure I'll be listening to myself say them for weeks! By the way, has anybody read any Kant lately? 
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addict
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I am reminded of that hilarious scene in the film Singing in the Rain, where the voice coach is teaching the dumb glamour actress to enunciate "But I can't stand him!" With her shrill, nasal voice, she pronounces it more like /kint/, only worse. Anyone else remember this? 
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Leaping boldly into the fray with just what I hear by saying the two words over and over ...
Dear Aji ... welcome to the Board.
Now, one problem you may have is the differences in all the regional accents that Americans have!
As a New Englander with a Boston accent, what I hear is that "can" is a word said in the throat, where "can't" has a nasal quality.
In Maine (also part of New England) I hear the throaty "Can" and the Maine accent uses caint for "can't"
at least it sounds that way.
Good luck with pronunciation ! You have your work cut out for you!
On another point, Americans use facial expression more than Asians, or so I noticed when living in Hawaii, so a bit of observation of the speaker's expression may help you distinguish can from can't.
Finally, hanging with this bunch of "Word Nuts" at AWADtalk will help you with your American/English. So do stick around! And on that note of two Americanisms, ("hanging with" and "stick around") I leave the discussion to the more erudite among us with a respectful bow in their directions.)
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stranger
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Thank you all for your kind responses.It is happy to raise something here for discussion.
I will STICK AROUND....^_^
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Yes, Aji, the difference between the standard US and UK pronunciations of these words is confusing. In the unstressed or weak form, it's pretty much the same in the positive: kn. In Southern British English, the stressed or strong form of can (Yes I can.) has the same vowel as cat, but stressed or unstressed the vowel in the negative can't is more like the vowel in barn (remembering that in this variety of English r is not pronounced before a consonant). The t in can't is very lightly pronounced and in fact often disappears in connected speech. We mainly go by the difference in vowel sound. English speakers do get confused themselves sometimes and have to ask someone whether they said can or can't.
Bingley
Bingley
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Aji will STICK AROUND....^_^
You won't regret it.
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Aji, welcome to the board. I don't really have anything to add to what my esteemed colleagues have provided you with; they have done a very good job. The one example I thought of was a well-known song from an old Broadway musical [Annie Get Your Gun ?] which starts, "I can do anything better than you" and which goes on between two people, "No, you can't!" "Yes, I can!". Although this is an American musical and although can't would be spoken with the short, flat vowel, that vowel sound comes out rather silly when being sung, so it's sung with the deeper English pronunciation, or something close to it.
This put a question in my mind which you will be able to answer for me: If the tones in Chinese determine the meaning of words, how do you distinguish the tones when you are singing? Is there a way to separate the musical tone from the verbal tone?
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I am a self confessed "ugly american" and only speak english-- but i find the tones of chinese often make it understandable..
In english, we us a rising tone/inflection to signify a question.. some versions of chinese do the same..
Once in a take out shop, the cashier, busy on the phone, seemed not to be paying attention to my order-- her father barked at her-- and i turned, and told him--Yes, she did put in a spoon and fork. His eyes widened! He asked if i spoke cantonese-- (right, when i have trouble with french!). But everything about the tones conveyed his question.. the meaning of his words were as clear as if he had spoken english.
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enthusiast
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Probably like most non-Americans, I find the Americans near-homonyms sometimes confusing.
The theme song for the H.R. Pufnstuf TV show went "He can do a little but he can['t] do enough", which mystified me before I was a linguist. In the environment N-D of "can('t) do" it's impossible for the T to be distinctly pronounced, so it has to be left to pitch and length.
A little-known phonetic fact about English (and I don't know whether this is just English or whether it's more general) is that vowel length can be correlated with pitch. In "bead" the long vowel drops, in "bid" the short vowel has a slight rise in pitch: though these effects can be masked by grammatical or semantic uses of pitch.
Better known is the lengthening effect of voice: "bead" is longer than "beat", and "bend" is longer than "bent". The effect is slighter in "ben" vs "bent".
Some such combination of factors is operating in American "can" vs "can't" but I have to leave it to native speakers to determine exactly what.
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old hand
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Some such combination of factors is operating in American "can" vs "can't"
It seems the pitch definitely tends to rise, as you described. I've never had many problems keeping the two apart, but then again context gives away a lot. 'Aunt' and 'ant' is a whole other story though!
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"H.R. Pufnstuf, He can do a little but he can['t] do enough"
And to think, I always heard it as "He can't do a little, he can't do enough."
No problem hearing that second instance as can't but I heard the first one the same way. And I don't remember having heard the but.
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<Singin' in the Rain>
Yes, Marianna, a wonderful film, and Jean Hagen's shrill voice also reminds me of Judy Holliday in 'Adam's rib' and 'Born yesterday'.
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