2020-03-19 Pronunciation: can that had

Greg Malivuk
gmalivuk@staffordhouse.com
http://www.pastebin.com/u/gmalivuk - Notes from all classes
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Remember: Most of the time, you don’t need to reduce your own pronunciation, just understand when we do.
However, there are some words that will be confusing if you don’t reduce them correctly.
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“can” - If you pronounce this too strongly, it sounds like “can’t”.
	I can talk. / I can’t talk.
“had” - Because “have” can be an auxiliary verb or a main verb, you have to reduce it as an auxiliary.
	In past perfect, “had had” is common.
	They didn’t eat together because Mary həd had lunch already.
“that” - This can be a stressed demonstrative pronoun or determiner, or an unstressed conjunction.
	I like this more than that. - stressed, pronounced fully
	I didn’t like that food very much. - pronounced fully
	I didn’t like that he was late. - reduced
	I didn’t know that that was true. - reduced, then stressed
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Especially when “can” or “can’t” has another /t/ sound after it, we don’t really hear if you say the /t/ at the end of the word. The vowel and stress are more important.
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exercise 12A - Take turns reading sentence (a) or (b), respond to your partner with the correct response for what you think you heard.
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Responses to “I can hear you.”
- That’s good, but I can’t hear you.
	“I” and “you” have stronger stress to contrast with the first person’s information. (“can’t” is not stressed but it is pronounced fully)
	This is called contrastive stress.
- I can hear you, too.
	“I” and “you” might be stressed again, but “can” is reduced in this case.
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We can stress each word in “I ordered two cheeseburgers.”
I - (The staff gave them to the wrong person.)
ordered - (They forgot that I’ve already asked for them.)
two - (The staff gave me one.)
cheeseburgers - (They gave me the wrong burgers, e.g. without cheese.)
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We do stress “can” when it’s at the end of a clause or sentence.
Can you speak French? - “can” is reduced
Yes, I can. - “can” is stressed and pronounced fully
I can also speak Spanish. - “can” is reduced
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I know thət that “that” həd had “had had” in front of it before you changed it.
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James, while John həd had “had had”, həd had “had”. “Had had” həd had the teacher’s approval.
= James, while John had used past perfect, had used simple past. Past perfect had been correct.