The MOST Confusing English Mistake Did you say CAN CANT or
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hello everyone and welcome back to
english with lucy today we are going to
be looking at
some really confusing words words that
are pronounced
in very similar ways words that if you
mispronounce them
you could say one of the worst swear
words or curse words
in the english language there’s a lot to
talk about today but don’t worry i’m
here to help you
before we get started i would like to
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let’s get started with those confusing
words
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firstly let’s look at can
and can’t now these can be really
confusing words
not only in the british pronunciation
the various forms of british
pronunciation
but in american english it gets even
more complicated so we’re going to talk
about
all of that today firstly let’s talk
about strong
and weak forms so with the word can
we have can with the ah sound
but we also have with the schwa sound
and this is a weak form
weak forms are syllable sounds that
become unstressed
in connected speech and they’re often
pronounced as the schwa
take a look at this sentence when i’m
speaking naturally
i would say i can do what i can so the
first can is a weak form
and the last one is an important word so
it’s
can the first can is in its weak form
and the second one is stressed so it’s
in its strong form
can can i can do what i can
this works for other words as well like
do what do you want to do
what do you want to do the first is
unstressed the second is stressed
now let’s take a look at can versus
can’t
with rp pronunciation my pronunciation
ah can ah
can’t ah is a really short and
wide sound ah ah
with can’t we have a different mouth
shape
and it’s a lot longer
do i look silly good because that’s how
i meant to look when i’m teaching
pronunciation
can
now let’s talk about a swear word i
don’t normally
talk about swear words on my channel in
american english they refer to them as
curse words
but there is a vowel sound it is very
similar to the
r sound if you use that in
can’t it makes a really bad word
the vowel sound is uh uh
so we’ve got r can’t
and uh i’m not going to say it on this
channel it’s a really vulgar word but if
you would like
to search it and hear it for yourself
then just replace the
a in can’t with a u and i’m sure
some robot dictionary will tell you
exactly what it sounds like
just be really mindful ah is short and
that’s the bad version
ah can’t that’s longer and that’s the
fine version
now something to notice with the
pronunciation of can’t
is that sometimes we don’t release that
final t
instead of saying can’t we might say
can’t
i can’t do it not i can’t do it
i can’t do it i can’t do it
i can do it i can’t do it i can do it
i can’t do it so you can’t always rely
on hearing that t
to know if somebody is saying can or
can’t
now this is where it gets complicated
because in american english
they use a very similar vowel sound
for can and can’t and they also
avoid releasing that tea at the end
so can in american english and you must
excuse
my terrible accent is can
can but can’t in american english
is can’t can’t
now if they don’t release that t then
they sound very similar
can can can
can okay brace yourself for this accent
i can try
i can try now i spoke to a couple of my
friends from the us
and they assured me that they can hear
the difference because
when they say can’t can’t they make the
vowel sound
much more abrupt can
can can can’t
so i hope you now feel confident in
pronouncing
can and can’t and avoiding pronouncing
that bad word unless you want to
pronounce it which is
fine by me just not on my channel and i
hope you now have a better idea about
the differences between can
and can’t in american english now let’s
talk about some more
pairs of words that even i find tricky
and i
really have to clarify exactly what i’m
saying especially when i’m talking on
the phone
this is the difference between teen and
t 14 40.
if i say i want 14 coffees please they
might say is that 14
or 14. so don’t worry if you mix them up
native speakers get confused with it all
the time it’s actually very
it’s very annoying that those words are
so similar but
in general speech there are differences
between them
take a look at the phonetic
transcriptions of these two words let’s
go on to
16 and 60. we have 16
and 60. you can see that in the teens
the stress is on the second syllable
but for the t’s the stress is on the
first syllable
16 60. fourteen
forty fifteen fifty
seventeen seventy eighteen
eighty nineteen
90 20 20
just joking with that last one i hope
you didn’t write that down
if so rub it out
so if you want to be really clear
especially when speaking over the phone
when you can’t lip read or really
hear too well make sure you really
over accentuate the stress of the word
you’re trying to use i said
60 not 16.
i’m going to do a really quick quiz for
you right now just to make sure you
understand the differences
write your answers in the comment
section down below
and then i’ll start correcting the first
ones i see you’ve got to tell me whether
i’m saying
teen or tea okay number one
60 people came to the game last night
i got my dog when i was 17.
i’ve been with my husband for 17 years
and the last one i’m only having 18
people
at the wedding i’m only having 80 people
at the wedding
right that is it for today’s lesson i
hope you enjoyed it
and i hope you learned something i hope
i clarified some of your doubts
don’t forget to check out lingoda with
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description box and remember that the
first
50 of my students to click on the link
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lucy and my website
englishwithlucy.co.uk or i’ve got a
really cool pronunciation tool you can
test out
pressing all of the phonemes and hearing
me say those phonemes and say words
containing those phonemes it’s
great fun e
no air and i’ve also got my vlogging
channel if you want to practice your
vocabulary and improve your listening
skills
all of my vlogs are fully subtitled and
they document my life here
in the english countryside i will see
you soon for another lesson
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there’s a lot to talk about today with
the full marathon the one-year marathon
schwa sound and this is a weak form
sorry that was my tummy
phoneme
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