One has a T sound and the other doesn't. (It's true that in some accents, and I'm thinking of some NE US accents here, people either skip the T or pronounce it so indistinctly that there isn't really a difference, which can be pretty confusing.) Also, in some S English accents, there's a difference in the sound of the A: it's long for "can't" and short for "can".

Hi Aniuska, Can = Yes, I can... Yes, you can... Can't = No, I cannot... No, you cannot... Examples: Yes, I can buy dinner. No, I cannot buy dinner. OR No, I can't buy dinner. You will also sometimes see cannot written with a space, "can not". Both are acceptable. I hope this helps! Greg

Hi, I'm afraid that there's a lot of variation in the way English speakers pronounce can and can't. The best way to tell the difference is just practice. That said, to avoid other people being confused by what YOU say, you can differentiate them by the following (which is what a lot of Australians do naturally): Can = pronounced like the word 'man', but with a c. Can't = pronounced like your Spanish word m'encanta, except the C is pronounced harder, like a K. Just make sure your keep the 'a' vowel long, not short. Definitely not a short 'a' vowel.

These words have very different pronunciations for normal stress and special emphasis. We usually use normal stress in the middle of a phrase, but we always use special emphasis at the end of a phrase. We can also use special emphasis in the middle of a phrase when we want to give the word… special emphasis :) Word normal special can: /kən/ /kæn/ can’t: /kæn/ /kænt/ can’t: Southern England emphatic: /kɑːnt/ Yes, the unstressed version of “can’t” and the stressed version of “can” sound almost the same in most accents (other than southern England and New York City), so you need to pay attention to the context. Trust your ears when you hear native speakers talking in natural conversation. Do not believe what they tell you, since most native speakers have no conscious awareness of what they’re really doing. Do not trust Forvo under any circumstances, because it is not natural speech, but rather, people are trying to “sound good” by enunciating “properly.”

Google 'glottal stop' and you will see why you can't hear is most of the time. It is an unfortunate trait that has invaded spoken English, not only in the UK but also North America