That glottal stop is only true of some British accents, particularly those around the South-East and London areas. It's certainly not universal in British dialects. For example, around the Midlands, where I come from, it's closer to the standard /wɔːtə/. Even in London dialects, there wouldn't be a glottal stop in "can't" - it will be /kɑːnt/. Hope that helps! Rich

It's not a foolish question , Keva - just a misleading video. 1. There are many different accents within the British Isles, and it is most definitely UNTRUE to say that British people 'always' pronounce 'water' with a glottal stop. While the typical working class London accent, for example, does have this feature, it is by no means universal. Only a tiny proportion of the population would pronounce 'water' as /wɔː ə/. The majority of British people, whatever their accent, would pronounce this word exactly as the dictionary shows, with a clear 't' : /wɔːtə/. 2. If by glottal stop, they mean that the 't' is not fully pronounced, then yes, this is normal. If you hear someone say 'I can't go', then the 't' sound is barely audible. But this has nothing to do with British accents - it is a feature of speech that applies to all English speakers. As for whether this causes confusion with 'can', then no, not at all. If you check in your dictionary for the standard British pronunciations of 'can' and 'can't', you will see that these words are very different indeed. 'Can' is pronounced /kæn/, while 'can't' is pronounced /ka:nt/ with a long 'a'. This long /a:/ in 'can't' is a particularly noticeable feature of standard British English, and there is never any confusion between the two words. In fact, foreign learners are far more likely to confuse 'can' and 'can't' in American English, where the two words do have the same vowel sound. Native speakers, needless to say, don't get confused, because the native speaker ear will pick up clues from the context, stress and intonation of the sentence to know whether it is positive or negative. By the way, can you send us a link to this video? I'd like to know what other misleading things it's telling people.

Hi friend, there are already 3 people answering the question, so I'm just gonna share some things. I live in the U.S and I never heard someone mention about "glottal stop" when pronounce. Maybe they did mention,( or it's just natural for us) and I didn't pay attention. I guess depend on what regions or what you want to learn: British-English or American English. (or if you plan to go study abroad to England or America).

A lot of the time can't sounds different when Brits say it anyway, because they say the a with a long a, like the a in parcel (although it is just the a and no r is pronounced). Therefore, even if they used a guttural stop the a would sound different. However yes, in some accents (further up north in England or far in the South West) the can in can't is pronounced the same as can (the a pronounced like the a in jam). Whilst "can't" doesn't require a guttural sound (in actual fact it shouldn't be used at all but is used to make speech easier and quicker), when it is used you can tell a difference between can and can't, even with the Northern accents that pronounce the can part the same. However, that being said, the guttural sound isn't always used anyway. It isn't a part of all regional accents. Maybe foreigners cannot hear it, but there's a subtle difference. The a in "can" sounds slightly longer and more open, but the a in "can't" is shorter. There is also a short release of air you can hear (again, very subtle).