FLUENT ENGLISH: The CAN Reduction in American English Pronunciation | Rachel’s English
How much do you know about reductions?
How much do you use them when speaking English?
Reductions are one of the best ways to sound natural when speaking English.
And also knowing them well is one of the best ways to improve your listening comprehension.
In this video, we're going to deep dive on one of my favorite reductions,
and you'll get so many examples of this reduction in real spoken English,
that you will absolutely be able to start identifying this in conversation better
and feeling more confident when using reductions speaking English.
Can.
It's not often pronounced that way.
And I realized, I have lots of videos from real English conversations where we study this reduction.
But that in any one of those videos, you may hear the reduction just once or twice.
I thought, I’ve been making videos for 10 years now
I have to make a compilation of all of the examples from real-life English that I have of this reduction.
After that, we'll go to Youglish and hear even more.
When you hear many examples of reduction that you're studying,
it almost guarantees that you'll start to identify it in other English conversation, movies,
TV, to improve your listening comprehension.
You'll also have lots of examples to study with.
Watch the video once then go back and watch the examples again and pause after each sentence.
Train your mind to think of this reduction.
First, let's play the video where I go over how to make this reduction and how it's used.
You've got to know that first.
Then we'll jump into the examples.
As in: it's a trash can, or the beans are from a can, they're not fresh.
In this case, can is pronounced with the AH as in bat vowel.
So the word can as a noun is a content word.
Therefore, it is generally not reduced in a sentence.
But the word can as a verb is generally an auxiliary verb or a helping verb.
And these are function words, and they will reduce.
So when is the verb can a helping verb?
Answering the question: Who can do this?
If I simply say 'I can', 'can' is the only verb so it won't reduce.
But if I want to say: I can do it.
The word 'can' now becomes: can, can.
And that's because it's an auxiliary verb to the main verb 'do'.
When it reduces, the word can is pronounced with the schwa sound.
The K consonant sound, schwa, N.
When you reduce the word 'can', you want to make sure that it links to the words around it.
You don't want gaps before or after can when it's pronounced.
Can.
We want it very linked to the words around it.
Let's look at a few more examples.
Do you notice the word 'can' doesn't reduce here?
I snuck in a case where they 'can' is a noun, so it's a content word, it won't reduce.
But now let's look at examples of this word in real conversational English.
Again, these are excerpts from other videos but we're focused on just one thing.
After this, we'll go to Youglish for even more examples.
I made this video for my friends Super Bowl party.
I hear that there's chili to be had.
There's...there's tons of chili, vegetarian and meat.
Can you step through how to pronounce 'chili', Hilary?
Did you notice I reduced the word can.
That's because it's a helping verb here.
The main verb being 'step through'.
Can you step through how to pronounce chili, Hilary?
Can you step through how to pronounce chili, Hilary?
Can you step through how to pronounce chili, Hilary?
This video I made on summer vacation several years ago.
Hey!
Uncle Frank brings his vote every year so that we can try skiing.
Did you notice the reductions of the words 'that' and 'can'?
These two function words will often reduce.
'That' becomes 'that' with either a flap or stop T, depending on the next sound.
And 'can' when not the main verb in a sentence, becomes can, can.
So that we can, So that we can.
Try and skiing, the two content words in this sentence, are clearly much longer than:
So that we can, So that we can, So that we can.
These four function words are low in pitch and very fast.
Ani, did you make that necklace?
I made this video after Hurricane Sandy hit the US.
Laura the reason why I can hardly see you is because powers out.
In this sentence, the word 'can' is a helping verb.
It's not the main verb, so it's a function word and I'm reducing it to can, can.
Laura, the reason why I can, I can, I can.
Laura the reason why I can hardly see you is because powers out.
If you ever need to recharge anything, just come on up to my apartment
you can have all the power and internet that you want.
Another can reduction, you can, you can, you can have.
You can have, you can have, you can have all the power and Internet that you want.
In this video, I interview a broadcaster Erica Hill.
If I don't know how to pronounce it, I’ll look it up.
So I will either call the international desk and see if there's someone there who is familiar.
If it's a different language, who speaks, who's a native speaker of that language, so that they can say it for me.
Ms. Hills speech, as with all native speakers, is filled with reductions.
Here, she's given us a great example of the reduction of the word can.
So that they can say it for me--
Here, can is a helping verb, and say is the main verb.
Most of the time, can is a helping verb.
In these cases, we reduce the pronunciation to can.
So we changed the vowel to the schwa, but just like in 'your'e', the next consonant, here the N,
absorbs the schwa, so it's just two sounds.
But the main verb say has much more length and that nice shape of a stressed syllable.
This rhythmic contrast of short and long syllables is very important in American English.
So that they can say, they can say, they can say, they can say it for me.
Or I’ll look it up online if I can't find it, you know, if it's a regular word, I’ll go to one of the dictionary websites,
and oftentimes you can hit a button and you can hear that word.
You can hit-- Again, a great reduction of the function word, the helping verb can.
And oftentimes, you can hit, you can hit, you can hit a button and you can hear that word.
You can hear, you can hear, you can hear that word.
I’ll do that or I will go and listen to whatever I can find in terms of video online.
I’ll do that or I will go and listen to
whatever I can find, whatever I can find, whatever I can find in terms of video online to hear if it's the name,
to hear that person saying their name.
Here, we're stressing the word 'can'.
So we're not reducing the word.
We're keeping the AH as in bat vowel.
So it can be, can be, can be, can be time-consuming?
It can be. It can be. It can be. It can be.
I think one of the worst things you can do is mispronounce someone's name.
In this video I'm on top of a mountain with my dad.
Yeah.
We just heard two more reductions.
The word 'can', a helping verb here, was reduced to can.
You can see. You can see. You can, you can, you can, you can, you can see.
In this video, I'm on vacation with my family.
Hi!
We reduce can when it's a helping verb.
That is not the main verb in a sentence.
Most of the time, can is a helping verb.
Hi!
In this video, I'm at a nature reserve with my family.
Here, I’ve reduced 'you' again: ye-- with the schwa.
We do this all the time when it's a helping verb, and it's almost always a helping verb.
This means it's not the main verb in the sentence.
See was the main verb and can, a helping verb.
Since the N is a syllabic consonant, it overtakes the vowel, the schwa.
You don't need to worry about making it.
So just make a K sound and an N sound.
There you go, many examples from my past ten years of making videos on this reduction.
To get even more examples, I'm going to take you to Youglish,
a great website to hear native speakers saying any given word or phrase.
In each one of these examples, can is pronounced very fast.
Pause and say the examples out loud.
This will focus your brain on the reduction
and you'll start to notice it more and more as you hear it around you.
You look like you're interested in a full playlist of other reductions of American English.
you know I’ve got that covered for you.