Do NOT Say CAN’T with a T! ⎢BETTER PRONUNCIATION

If you’re learning to speak American English one of the most common contractions—can’t—is one of the most difficult! In this American English pronunciation lesson, you’ll learn from multiple native speakers how to pronounce the word can’t. It’s surprising for most students to learn that in English we often don’t say the “T” in can’t. It’s hard to train your accent to drop the T in can’t but it definitely is necessary if you want to sound more like a native speaker of English.

Improve your American Accent / spoken English at Rachel's English with video-based lessons and exercises. Rachel uses real life English conversation as the basis for teaching how to speak English and how to sound American -- improve listening comprehension skills. Study English vocabulary and English phrases such as phrasal verbs, as well as common expressions in English. Learn American idioms and American slang.

#Do_NOT_Say_CAN_T_with_a_T #RachelsEnglish

[rachelsenglish]

*Want to have ME be your Accent Teacher?* 🙂
*here's how:

[pGHz]

I have no idea why YouTube suggested this for me but this is fascinating.

[gabor]

The British pronunciation makes it so much easier: can: [kaen], can't: [ka:nt]. Even when you drop the T the vowel makes it clear.

[MorningMage]

The ‘t’ turns into a glottal stop, which is why it sounds dropped. It’s more accurate to say that the ‘t’ sound converts into another sound.

[wingedhussar]

I am a non native speaker of English and I think I am going to continue saying "can't" with a clear "t" sound even after watching this video. I prefer having a light foreign accent over not being understood because I fail to pronounce a proper glottal stop after "n"...

[albinasalkayeva]

I've never understood why I heard "can" while people actually said "can't". So this video was incredibly helpful, thank you so much!

[LillianWinterAnimations]

Fascinating!
As a native speaker, I never realized we dropped the T sound at all.
To my ears, every example of a dropped T.. I heard a T sound really clearly

[lauramcfun]

As a native English speaker, watching this makes me realize why American English is so hard to learn. I just instinctively know which is which. I never even realized the T wasn't pronounced! I guess most of us just don't think about it.

[maria]

Let’s just say Americans have been dropping their T’s since 1773

[PascaleLaurent]

I never actually realized I was also dropping the T myself until I watched that video. As a non English native speaker, I mostly learned with tv shows, films, interviews ect By also listening to the radio, I immersed myself with the language and learned a lot by doing just that.

[tsukono]

I still don't understand how I learned English, just kept watching YouTube and it worked

[altanaltay]

I am more comfortable with “Can and can’t” pronunciations after this lesson, thank you!

[stevolopez]

You are by far, the best American English teacher I've ever seen. I live on the border. So many people here need to watch your videos. I will be recommending you to alot of my friends!

[spanishlessonsforme]

Omg. Finally, I understand why people thought I said “can’t” when I meant “can.” I wasn’t shortening it. Thank you !

[catspewer]

Today I learned that some people don't pronounce the t at the end of "can't." (I'm a native English speaker btw.)

[thePyiott]

You know the teacher is good when she teaches you to do things the "wrong" way

[donquijotedelamancha]

I've been teaching English as a foreign/second language for 25 years, and I personally and professionally believe these subtleties can be taught only to advanced students. If I tried to explain this to beginners or intermediate students, I'd just waste tons of valuable time and end up having a bunch of frustrated pupils in the room.

[mmmrose]

We use different vowel sounds with “can” and“can’t” and sometimes the “t” is pronounced as a type of “flap” or blends with the next consonant sound /t/ or /d/ …. Maybe it varies by region here in the United States I live in Philly

This is helpful! As a non-native speaker, I always wondered why people wouldn't make more of an effort to really clarify whether they're saying CAN or CAN'T, seeing that these words are literally opposites and understanding them wrong can easily lead to a mess.

[lkjhgfdsa]

Sometimes British accent really works here.