can't
English
Pronunciation
- (General Australian) enPR: känt, IPA(key): /kaːnt/, [kʰäːnt]
Audio (AU) (file)
- (Received Pronunciation, some US speakers) enPR: känt, IPA(key): /kɑːnt/, [kʰɑːnt]
Audio (UK) (file) - Rhymes: -ɑːnt
- (most US speakers, Canada, Scotland, Ireland, Northern England) enPR: kănt, IPA(key): /kænt/, /kæn(ʔ)/
- (æ-tensing) IPA(key): [kʰeənt]
Audio (US) (file) - Rhymes: -ænt
- (Southern American English) IPA(key): [kʰeɪnt]
Audio (Southern US) (file) - Rhymes: -eɪnt
- Homophones: cant, Kant (in some dialects)
Verb
can't
- Cannot (negative auxiliary[3]); is unable to; does not have the ability to.
- I can’t quite get it to work.
- Is forbidden to; is not permitted to.
- You can’t enter the hall without a ticket.
- Often with be: is logically impossible.
- The butler can’t be the murderer because he was in London that evening.
- 1750, W[illiam] Ellis, The Country Housewife's Family Companion: Or Profitable Directions for Whatever Relates to the Management and Good Œconomy of the Domestick Concerns of a Country Life, According to the Present Practice of the Country Gentleman's, the Yeoman's, the Farmer's, &c. Wives, in the Counties of Hertford, Bucks, and Other Parts of England: Shewing how Great Savings may be Made in Housekeeping: [...] With Variety of Curious Matters [...] The Whole Founded on Near Thirty Years Experience, London: Printed for James Hodges, at the Looking-glass, facing St. Magnus Church, London-Bridge; and B. Collins, bookseller, at Salisbury, OCLC 837728611, page 157:
- To make Capons […] [S]ome for this Purpoſe make it their Buſineſs after Harveſt-time to go to Markets for buying up Chickens, and between Michaelmas and All-hollantide caponize the Cocks, when they have got large enough to have Stones [i.e., testes] of ſuch a Bigneſs that they may be pulled out; for if they are too little, it can't be done; […]
Usage notes
Antonyms
- be able to, can,
- Sense 2 and 3 only - must, have to
See also
- Appendix:English modal verbs
- Appendix:English tag questions
References
- “can't” in Douglas Harper, Online Etymology Dictionary, 2001–2019.
- “can't” in Merriam–Webster Online Dictionary.
- Arnold M. Zwicky and Geoffrey K. Pullum, Cliticization vs. Inflection: English n’t, Language 59 (3), 1983, pp. 502-513
Anagrams
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