pronunciation: can / can’t [American English]

TheCrociato91 said:

But trust me, in that context both sentences make perfect sense, as in some videogames the verb “to kill” is (sloppily and improperly, if you will) used as a synonym for “to destroy, to take out”.

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I think his point was not about the word kill, it was about “can”. “I will” would make more sense there. “I’ll kill the tank.”, “I’ll get the tank.” “I can’t kill the tank.”

Despite what some people think “can” and “can’t” really don’t sound that much alike. Unstressed “can” sounds nothing like “can’t” (I don’t think “can’t” can be unstressed, can it?). Stressed “can” is longer and fades slowly. You can stretch out the vowel as long as you want. “Can’t” ends much more abruptly and there is no point to stretching out the vowel. When I say “can” I clearly feel my tongue pressing behind my top teeth, helping generate the n sound. When I say “can’t” my tongue only touches the same spot at the very end, after the throat has already closed off the airflow.

Any word can be missed in a stressful situation like a fake battle. One of my pet peeves is asking someone to repeat a word I missed because of a blip in a phone call, for instance, and instead of just saying the same thing they make up a whole new sentence to explain it and I’m thinking, “I just didn’t hear the word. Just tell me the word.”

In summary, I’d say as a native speaker you don’t need a special strategy for can and can’t. They’re two different words and they sound different. But in certain circumstances, as with any other word, you might miss it the first time (ca

n k

ill, ca

n’t k

ill). Simply repeating the word would usually be sufficient, especially with just a bit extra enunciation.

I think his point was not about the word kill, it was about “can”. “I will” would make more sense there. “I’ll kill the tank.”, “I’ll get the tank.” “I can’t kill the tank.”Despite what some people think “can” and “can’t” really don’t sound that much alike. Unstressed “can” sounds nothing like “can’t” (I don’t think “can’t” can be unstressed, can it?). Stressed “can” is longer and fades slowly. You can stretch out the vowel as long as you want. “Can’t” ends much more abruptly and there is no point to stretching out the vowel. When I say “can” I clearly feel my tongue pressing behind my top teeth, helping generate the n sound. When I say “can’t” my tongue only touches the same spot at the very end, after the throat has already closed off the airflow.Any word can be missed in a stressful situation like a fake battle.One of my pet peeves is asking someone to repeat a word I missed because of a blip in a phone call, for instance, and instead of just saying the same thing they make up a whole new sentence to explain it and I’m thinking, “I just didn’t hear the word. Just tell me the word.”In summary, I’d say as a native speaker you don’t need a special strategy for can and can’t. They’re two different words and they sound different. But in certain circumstances, as with any other word, you might miss it the first time (caill, caill). Simply repeating the word would usually be sufficient, especially with just a bit extra enunciation.