Hi, my name is J. Lee and I teach English as a second language with the Cata Language Instruction. I am producing this video today to answer a question that I get from students quite often. And the question is regarding the difference between the way to pronounce can and the way to pronounce can't. It seems that often native English speakers misunderstand students of English when they're using these two words. So what I would like to do today is to go over the three differences between using can and can't in a sentence. The first difference is the vowel sound. In a positive sentence, when can is used with the verb, the vowel in C-A-N is a schwa sound, just ㄴ. Like instead of saying can, you typically would say ㄴ. Like I can do it. I can go. I can play sports. In a negative sentence, the vowel sound is a strong A sound. I can't do it. I can't go. I can't play sports well. So vowel sound is one difference. Positive is just a schwa, ㄴ, and negative is a strong A. The second difference is the length of the vowel. In the positive, it's very short. It's almost like it's not there. Like I can do it. It's just almost like C-N instead of with the vowel, it's very short. I can do it. But with the negative, the vowel is longer. I can't do it. So it's A is long. So the second difference is in the length of the vowel, it's very short with the positive, it's longer with the negative. The third difference between can and can't in a sentence is in the pitch. In a positive sentence, the word can has a lower pitch than the verb or the subject. So, and I'm going to use my head a little bit here to emphasize this, because I can do it. I can do it. In the negative, the can't is at a high pitch the same as the verb, and also generally higher than the subject. So the negative is I can't do it. I can't do it. And compare that to the positive again. I can do it. I can go. I can play sports. With the negative, I can't go. I can't do it. I can't play sports well. So you see, with the negative, can't and the verb are at a higher pitch. But in the positive, can is at a low pitch, and usually the verb is at a higher pitch. So, once again, the three differences between can and can't in a sentence. The first one is the vowel sound, positive, can, negative, can't. The second is in the length, the positive is short, can, negative is long, can't. And the third is the pitch in the sentence. It is low. I can do it. And negative is high. I can't do it. So those are the three main differences between can and can't in saying in a sentence. Before I stop, I'd like to point out that the positive that I'm speaking of is when you use can with a verb. If you're simply going to use the short answer, then you would say the full a sound. So you would say yes, I can. No, I can't. In that case, both of them have the a sound. Normally then you have yes with it, so it's clearer. I think the big problem is when can and can't are in a sentence like I can go or I can't go. I hope this helped you in understanding the difference between can and can't in a sentence. If you would like to take lessons with me, please email me at learnenglish at akadalanguage.com. If you are in the Southeast Michigan area, I can give lessons in person. And if you're outside of Southeast Michigan, you can do lessons online through Skype.